Strange Bedfellows
by J. B. Tilton
Summary: When evidence in a 5 year old burglary gone wrong surfaces, the team reopens the case.  A case that could involve Edward Rendell, the Governor of Pennsylvania.
1. Chapter 1

COLD CASE

Strange Bedfellows

By J. B. Tilton (a.k.a. NoAzMale) and Teri Thibeault (a.k.a. Tessalynne)

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Rating: K+

Disclaimer: "Cold Case" and all related characters and events are the property of Jerry Bruckheimer and the CBS Corporation, except for those characters specifically created for this story. This is a work of fan fiction and no infringement of copyright is intended.

(Authors' note: This story takes place between season 1 episodes "Sherry Darlin'" and "The Hitchhiker".)

Special Note: The Honorable Edward Rendell, the Governor of Pennsylvania and former Mayor of Philadelphia and John Timoney the Police Commissioner of Philadelphia in this story are actual people who held these positions in 1998. They are included here only for purposes of authenticity for the story background and no connection to any actual crime should be inferred by their inclusion in this story.

When evidence in a 5 year old burglary gone wrong surfaces, the team reopens the case. A case that could involve Edward Rendell, the Governor of Pennsylvania.

PROLOGUE

April 18, 1998, 5:48 p.m.

The young man walked into the living room of the palatial home he had just been admitted to. Several people were all ready there, including the current mayor of Philadelphia, Edward Rendell. It was Rendell's home and the young man was there for a dinner party that the mayor and his wife were throwing. As the young man looked around a somewhat older man approached him. The man was 31 years old, ten years older than the young man.

"RJ," said the older man, "it's good to see you. You haven't been here in months. I'm sure His Honor will be glad to see you."

"Thank you, Mr. Probst," said RJ. "I'm sorry I'm late. I had the devil of a time getting this tie tied. I've never been very comfortable in a tuxedo."

"To be honest," said Mayor Rendell walking over to the two men, "neither have I. But as the mayor of Philadelphia I have to present a certain look even if it is just a private dinner party. Where are your parents? I thought they were coming, too?"

"They were," said RJ. "But mom started feeling ill. Her stomach was upset and she said she felt like she was getting a fever. They asked me to convey their apologies for not coming. I know it was kind of last minute and all but dad felt it was best not to take chances."

"Of course," said Rendell, "no sense taking chances. Your mother needs to take care of herself. We wouldn't want her taking ill."

"That's what dad said," said RJ. "I'm sure it's nothing serious. Probably just one of her migraines. She's suffered from them most of her life."

"How well I know that," said Rendell. "Garland, why don't you get young Parker here a drink? You are 21, aren't you?"

"Of course," said RJ. "For about 6 months now. Some white wine would be nice."

"Certainly," said Probst. "I'll be right back."

"So," said Rendell, "have you decided on your major yet? Your father told me this is your third year in college and you have yet to declare a major."

"I guess I'll go into business administration," said RJ. "Dad expects me to work for the company when I graduate. He says a degree in business management will help with that."

"He's right about that. Running a company the size of your father's requires the proper training and experience. The best place to start is with an MBA."

"I've never really cared much for business. But Richard James Parker III couldn't really do anything else, I guess. My dad inherited the business from my grandfather and I'll inherit it from him. So I suppose there really isn't much else I can do."

"Oh, don't sound like that. It will be quite a challenge. And it can also be very rewarding. I'll bet you'll find you enjoy it more than you imagine."

"Maybe. I just can't really see myself sitting in an office day after day."

Before Rendell could respond a young woman wearing a cook's uniform approached him.

"Excuse me, Your Honor," said the young woman. "Dinner is about to be served, sir."

"Thank you, Maria," said Rendell. "Well, I guess we should be heading into the dining room. Why don't' you forget about school for now? This is a dinner party and you're only expected to enjoy yourself."

"Thanks, Uncle Rick. That sounds like a good idea."

Together the two men followed the others in the room into the dining room for dinner.

It was nearly 9:00 o'clock when two police officers arrived at the mayor's door. Dinner had been over for a while and the guests were enjoying after dinner drinks and some pleasant conversation in the library. One of the guests at the mayor's house was the Philadelphia Police Commissioner and the officers immediately spoke to him. After a moment the commissioner walked over to Rendell who was currently talking with RJ.

"Excuse me, Richard," said the commissioner, "two of my officers are here. I'm afraid they have some bad news. RJ, there's been a problem at your house. You need to go home immediately. I'll take you."

"Problem?" questioned RJ concerned. "Mom and dad. Are they okay?"

"Information is sketchy right now," said the commissioner. "It appears there was a break in at your house a short time ago. We need you to come home and see what's been taken. I'm sorry, Richard. I realize this dinner party was in my honor but I'm afraid this has to take precedence."

"I understand, John," said the mayor. "Richard and Ruth. Are they okay?"

"I'm afraid not," said the commissioner, looking at RJ. "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, RJ. It appears both your parents were killed during the break in."

"Killed?" RJ repeated in surprise. "But they were fine when I came here."

"Go, RJ," said the mayor. "Under the circumstances I'm sure everyone will understand. I'll make your excuses. John, I want to be kept apprised of everything about this case. Richard Parker and his wife were not only good friends of mine but they were good friends to the city of Philadelphia. I want whoever did this caught as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, Mr. Mayor," said John. "We'll catch whoever did this. I'll put as many men on it as I have to."

RJ and the police commissioner headed out the front door as the mayor went into the library to make the explanations to the other guests.

ONE

December 15, 2003

"You're crazy," said Nick as he and Will walked into the squad room. "I've been there. They're good but they're nothing like the ones at the Wrap Shack. You want the best in town? You need to go to the Wrap Shack."

"No, no, you have it all wrong," said Will. "I know that place. The Wrap Shack is okay. But Jake's is better than okay. There's no better place to go to get one than Jake's. Trust me on this, Nick. You won't find a better place in town."

"What's this all about?" Lilly asked as Stillman stepped out of his office. Initially he was concerned that Nick and Will might be having a serious argument. It didn't take him long to realize that it was one of their famous disagreements over something that was usual only a matter of opinion.

"Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches," said Nick. "Will says the best place to get one is Jake's Philadelphia Cheesesteaks at 16th and Chestnut. And like I told him, they're sandwiches aren't bad. But the best place in town to get one is the Wrap Shack On The Square on South 18th Street. Now that's the best place for a cheese and steak sandwich."

"All this over a sandwich?" questioned Stillman.

"Not just a sandwich, boss," said Nick. "The best one in the city."

"Yeah, you're such a culinary expert, Nick," said Will, smiling slightly.

"Hey, maybe I'm no expert," said Nick, "but I do know where to get the best chesses and steak sandwich. I've eaten enough of them."

"That much is obvious," said Lilly, smiling.

"Okay, everyone, that's enough," said Stillman. "We really need to get to work. Besides, you're both wrong. The best Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches in the city are at Philly Cheese Steaks And Hoagies on Market Street."

"Philly?" questioned Nick. "You're joking, right?"

"Do they do this often?" Scotty asked.

"Enough," said Lilly, sitting back down at her desk. "Neither one ever changes the others mind. Besides, it's all a matter of opinion. Everyone has their own favorite place to eat. I've learned it's usually best just to stay out of it."

"Detective Rush?"

Scotty and Lilly looked up to see a young uniformed officer standing next to Scotty's desk looking at him.

"I'm Rush," said Lilly.

"Oh, sorry," said the officer. "I was just told to see Detective Rush. I didn't know there were any female homicide detectives."

"No harm done," said Lilly. "I'm the only one. What can I do for you officer . . . .?

"Garcia," said the young officer. "Peter Garcia. I was told you work on cold cases."

"That's right," said Lilly. "We all do. You have something on cold one for us?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Garcia.

"Let's tone down the ma'am talk," said Lilly. "I'm not old enough to be a ma'am."

"Oh, okay, right," said Garcia. "Sorry." He took a photograph out of his pocket and handed it to Lilly. "It's about this. We picked it up a couple of days ago in a routine bust. I recognized it and thought I should talk to you about it."

"What is it?" Scotty asked.

"It looks like a painting," said Lilly. She showed the photo to Scotty. It showed what appeared to be a painting of a forest scent with sunlight streaming in through the trees. "What case do you think this is connected to, Garcia?"

"1998," said Garcia. "A couple named Richard and Ruth Parker. They were some wealthy art patrons or something that were murdered during a home invasion. That painting was one of the items that was taken during the burglary."

"Are you sure?" Lilly asked. "I remember reading about that case. It went cold real fast. And I remember something about the Parker's having some pretty high up friends, too."

"About as high as you can get," said Will, walking over to Lilly's desk, Nick close behind. "Sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But I couldn't help but overhear."

"No problem here," said Lilly. "It's kind of hard to keeps secrets around here. Officer Garcia, Detectives Jeffries and Vera."

"So, what do you know about this one?" Scotty asked.

"John Timoney, the police commissioner at the time, made this one top priority," said Will. "The Parker's were personal friends with Edward Rendell. In fact, their son was having dinner with Rendell when they got the news that his parents had been killed."

"Edward Rendell?" questioned Scotty. "As in Governor Rendell? The current Governor of Pennsylvania?"

"One and the same," said Nick. "He was mayor of Philadelphia from 1992 thru 1999. He became governor of Pennsylvania at the beginning of this year. I remember this one, too. Mayor Rendell wanted the doer caught but the police just didn't have enough leads."

"Which doer?" Stillman asked, walking up to the desk.

"The Parker case, boss," said Lilly. "Officer Garcia has brought us what he thinks is new evidence in the case."

"Parker?" questioned Stillman. "Richard and Ruth Parker? The friends of Governor Rendell?"

"Yes, sir," said Garcia.

"Garcia, meet Lieutenant Stillman," said Lilly. "He's in charge here."

"What makes you think this is evidence in that case, Garcia?" Stillman asked.

"It's the painting that was taken during the burglary, sir," said Garcia. "My mother runs a little art gallery in town so I've picked up a few things from her over the years. That painting is called 'Sunset In A Forest' and it was painted by a little known artist named Daniel Closson. I've seen pictures of it a hundred times. That's the painting."

"Where'd you get it?" Stillman asked.

"Well, sir, as I was explaining to Detective Rush," said Garcia, "we picked it up in a routine bust. A woman named Clarrissa Fontane was running a whore . . . that is, a brothel." He glanced nervously at Lilly for a moment. "I was one of the officers assigned to help when they raided the place. While we were there I saw the painting and recognized it. So I took it in as evidence."

"That's okay, Officer Garcia," said Lilly, smiling at the young man's embarrassment, "I've heard worse. How did you put it together with the Parker murders? You don't look old enough to have been on the force for 5 years."

"Just over 3 years, ma'am, er, I mean Detective," said Garcia. "But I do remember reading about the burglary in the paper. My mom commented at the time she didn't understand why Mr. Parker had that painting in the first place. As rich as he was he could have afforded some a lot more expensive. As paintings go, that one isn't very valuable."

"If this is the same painting," said Stillman, "this Clarrissa Fontane might have information about who pulled the burglary. The Parker's were close personal friends of then Mayor Rendell and I'm sure he'd be very interested in closing this one."

"We could see what we have on it?" Scotty suggested. "A high profile case like that we should have a lot of information on it."

"First things first," said Stillman. "Let's authenticate the painting first. Make sure it is the same painting. No offense, officer, but a lot of paintings look alike. And since this one has ties to the governor of the state I want to make sure we know exactly what we're talking about before we go opening any can of worms."

"It shouldn't be too hard to authenticate," said Lilly. "Garcia. Where is the painting now?"

"It's in the property office," said Garcia. "And I can assure you it's the same painting. I checked it out before I came here."

"All the same," said Stillman, "have Holcomb take a run at it. If it's the same painting he'll be able to tell us."

"Stewart Holcomb?" Will asked. "The art appraiser?"

"Yes," said Stillman. "He's done some work for the department in the past. If that painting is authentic he'll be able to tell you. If it is authentic, then check the box and see what we have on the case. After that, go have a talk with Clarrissa Fontane and find out where she got it."

"On our way, boss," said Lilly.

"Lieutenant," said Garcia nervously.

"What is it, officer?" Stillman asked.

"Well, sir, I, uh, I was wondering if there might be a chance for me to join the homicide squad," said Garcia. "I've wanted to be a homicide detective since I was a kid. I graduated at the top of my class from the academy and all of my efficient reports have been excellent. I was just wondering if maybe you might have an opening."

"Well," said Stillman somewhat self-consciously. It was obvious to everyone in the room that this officer, while probably a good policeman, was far too young and inexperienced for the types of jobs they handled. But Stillman wasn't the type to simply quash a young man's dream. "There are a few things you need to do first. You'll need some more experience as a police officer. Then you'll need to take the detective's exam and pass it. Those aren't easy. Then there are budgetary constraints. At the moment I simply don't have an opening or the budget for another detective."

"I understand, sir," said Garcia, obviously disappointed.

"I'll tell you what," said Stillman. "We get allocated new funds and sometimes additional slots every year. When and if there's an opening, I'll take a look at your record and see how it looks. If it looks like I can use you I'll give it serious consideration."

"Yes, sir, thank you sir," said Garcia, obviously a little more buoyant. "You won't regret it, sir. I think I'd make a good addition to your team."

"We'll see," said Stillman.

"Well, for now," said Lilly, "let's go get that painting so we can see if we actually have somewhere to go on the case. We'll let you know what we find out, Lieutenant."

"Spunky kid," said Nick as the three left the office.

"He does seem enthusiastic," said Will.

"It takes more than spunk and enthusiasm to make a homicide detective," said Stillman. "You two of all people should know that. Now what say we get some actual work done? It will be several years before I have to worry about Officer Garcia anyway."

Stillman went back into his office and closed the door to get started on the paperwork that had been piling up on his desk.


	2. Chapter 2

TWO

"Well, this is authentic," said Stewart Holcomb.

He was exactly as Lilly had imagined him. At 45 he was considerably overweight. But he still had a full head of hair and a full beard. Both had only sporadic streaks of gray in them. He had a pair of square frame glasses that sat perpetually at the end of his nose and he never bothered to push them up.

"So this is 'Sunset In A Forest' painted by this Closson?" Lilly asked.

"That it is," said Holcomb. "Daniel Closson lived in the 1600s. Actually he was a contemporary Rembrandt."

"The famous painter?" Scotty asked.

"Yes. They both were Dutch. Closson even apprenticed under Rembrandt for a few months. Between 1637 and '38. But to be honest he wasn't very good. Eventually Rembrandt was able to convince him he didn't have the talent or skill to be a professional painter. So Closson left his apprenticeship and went into politics. Turned out to be a good decision. He did very well as a politician."

"What can you tell us about the painting?" Lilly asked.

"Well, Closson presented it as a gift to a friend's daughter in 1658. Even after he left Rembrandt he continued to paint some more as a hobby than anything else. Apparently he painted this one in 1658. The young girl kept it until her death when it was inherited by her son. It's had several owners over the years. The last one was Richard J. Parker II. I understand it disappeared the night Mr. Parker died."

"That's right," said Lilly. "Home invasion. It recently turned up. That's why we needed it authenticated."

"Well it's authentic as I said. There's no doubt about it. It's not a very good painting. I don't understand why a man with Mr. Parker's taste and wealth would have wasted his time on this one."

"How much is it worth?" Scotty asked.

"Oh, only about $7,000.00 or $8,000.00," replied Holcomb. "Strictly bush league."

"Eight thousand dollars?" Scotty questioned. "I don't exactly call that bush league."

"Well," said Holcomb, "when you consider that some of the paintings by the masters can command several million dollars per painting, $8,000.00 isn't much. Whoever took this one obviously didn't know anything about art."

"Why do you say that?" Lilly asked.

"I know for a fact that Mr. Parker owned several paintings worth a great deal more than this one. Anyone who knows anything about art would have passed up this one for one of the more expensive ones. Especially since they took the painting frame and all."

"Is that unusual?" Lilly asked.

"Look, I've appraised quite a few paintings for the police department. And I do a great deal of appraising for museums and private owners. On occasion I've even had to appraise a painting that was stolen and then recovered. People like to know that the painting they got back is the actual one that was stolen and not some reproduction."

"At those prices I can't say I blame them," said Scotty.

"Well, when someone steals a painting," continued Holcomb, "they always cut the painting out of the frame. That way they can roll it up and stick it in their coat or something. Makes it easier to transport the painting. This is different. This painting was never cut out of the frame. It's still in its original frame."

"You're sure about that?" Scotty asked.

"Absolutely. Closson did learn a few things from Rembrandt. One was putting the right frame on a painting. This is the same frame that Closson originally put on the painting. So whoever stole this painting from Parker's home took it frame and all."

"That's interesting," said Lilly. "So if this case was a home invasion like the original investigators thought, why would the burglar risk being seen carrying the painting down the street? Why not just cut the painting out of the frame to make it easier to transport?"

"As I said," said Holcomb, "whoever took it didn't know much about art. Mr. Parker had several paintings worth a great deal more than this one."

"Thank you, Mr. Holcomb," said Lilly. "You've been a big help."

"I'll just send my bill to the department as usual," said Holcomb. "Make sure your lieutenant lets them know it's coming."

"We will," said Scotty.

"Interesting turn of events," said Lilly as they left Holcomb. "A burglar targets a wealthy couple's home, breaks in, kills the couple in their own home, and takes a painting worth almost nothing? That doesn't make sense."

"Well, like Holcomb said, whoever did it didn't know anything about art. Maybe he just grabbed the first one he saw thinking he could fence it."

"So how did Clarrissa Fontane end up with it?"

"Maybe it's time we asked her. After we check the box on the case. There may be something in there that will tell us."

"Let's get back to the station. See what kind of leads we have on this one."

"Seems pretty straight forward," said Scotty as they looked through the box of evidence in the archives. "Someone apparently broke into the Parker's house about 8:30 p.m. Neighborhood woman, Mildred Walker, heard shots about that time while she was walking her dog. She called the police. They arrived 6 minutes later and found the Parker's dead in the library."

"Says here," said Stillman, "the intruder got away with $2,637.00 in cash, the Parker's jewelry consisting of their wedding bands, Mrs. Parker's engagement ring, their watches, Mr. Parker's wallet, and some assorted jewelry. Other than the painting no large items were taken."

"Police report says that their son, Richard James Parker III, was attending a dinner party at Mayor Rendell's when the invasion occurred," said Will. "The police immediately went to Rendell's home when they discovered who the vic's were."

"Why would they do that?" Lilly asked.

"The Parker's were good friends with the mayor," said Stillman. "They were also major patrons of the arts. The dinner party that night was a private party to welcome the new police commissioner. Mayor Rendell had appointed him only the month before."

"John Timoney, wasn't it?" Scotty asked.

"Yeah," said Nick. "I hear he's the Chief of Police in Miami now."

"So if they were such good friends, why didn't they go to the dinner party?" Lilly asked. "Why was their son there?"

"The police report says that Parker said his mother wasn't feeling well," said Will. "They had decided to stay home but Parker went anyway."

"That's interesting," said Lilly. "What do you make of this picture?"

She showed the picture she was holding to the other detectives. It showed Ruth Parker lying on the floor, blood covering the front of her bathrobe. The other detectives looked at the picture but none of them noticed anything unusual about it.

"You said that Mrs. Parker wasn't feeling well," said Lilly. "That's why they didn't go to the party."

"That's what their son said," said Will.

"Well, this picture shows Mr. Parker with her makeup on. When a woman is getting fixed up to go out, she puts her make up on first. That way she won't get any makeup on her clothes. Especially if it's something as important as dinner with the mayor."

"Are you saying the son lied about why his parents weren't there?" Scotty asked.

"No," said Lilly. "Maybe she started feeling better and decided to go to the dinner."

"The dinner party was scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m.," said Stillman. "The Parker's weren't killed until 8:30. Seems a little late to be heading out to the dinner party especially since they weren't dressed yet. By the time they had gotten there the party would have been over."

"You did say they were good friends with the mayor," said Lilly. "Maybe it wasn't so unusual for them to go over that late at night."

"Well, the only way to know for sure is to ask Rendell," said Scotty. "He'd be able to tell us if they had a habit of coming over late at night."

"Let's backup just a bit," said Stillman. "We're talking about the Governor of the state. And there's talk that he might be Senator John Kerry's running mate as the Democratic candidate for Vice President in next year's election. You can't just go up to him and ask him like he's any other witness. Besides, technically he's not even involved in this case."

"Well, we need to find out somehow," said Lilly. "Any suggestions?"

"Garland Probst," said Nick. "He was the governor's aid when the governor was the mayor. He'd probably know. I read that after Rendell resigned after his second term Probst decided to stay with the city government instead of going with Rendell. I think he's working in the city manager's office now."

"Good idea, Nick," said Stillman. "Why don't you and Will check with Probst and see what he can tell you about the Parker's and about the night they died? Lil, you and Scotty go talk to Clarrissa Fontane. Find out where she got the painting."

"What about incentives?" Lilly asked. "She's been arrested for running a brothel. Can't imagine she'd be very forthcoming about the painting if she's facing jail time for that."

"Then remind her this is a murder investigation and the penalties for that are a whole lot more serious than for simple prostitution," said Stillman. "And if her information is useful we'll let the DA know. Can't promise anything but he might go easier on her for that."

"Will do, boss," said Lilly. "We'll let you know what we find out."


	3. Chapter 3

THREE

"We need to talk to you about the painting that was confiscated when you were arrested," said Lilly as she and Scotty interviewed Clarrissa Fontane at the city jail.

Fontane was only 22 but she appeared to be much older. Lilly had taken one look at the woman and could tell this was a hard customer. Her profile indicated she had grown up in one of the rougher neighborhoods of Philly.

"Ain't got nothing to say," said Fontane. "My lawyer says for me not to say nothing unless he's here."

"This doesn't have anything to do with your arrest," said Scotty. "It's a murder investigation."

"Wait a minute," said Fontane. "I haven't murdered anyone. I run a business, plain and simple. Murder doesn't even enter into it."

"The painting," said Lilly. "It was stolen from a couple about 5 years ago. The couple lived in Chestnut Hill and they were murdered when the painting was stolen."

"I should have known," said Fontane. "He said he found it at a rummage sale. It was kind of pretty and he gave it to me for my 17th birthday. I didn't know it was stolen or that anyone had died."

"Who gave it to you?" Scotty asked.

"My brother, Casper. He wasn't much good but he was my brother. Always looking for one get rich scheme after another. Never had more than a part-time job. When he gave me the painting I never questioned much where it came from. Guess I just didn't want to know."

"When did he give you the painting?" Lilly asked.

"Like I said, for my 17th birthday. That was about the last week of April '98. The 30th I think. Said he had to work the next day so he wouldn't be able to see me on my birthday. My birthday is May 1st. He always got me something special for my birthday. Like I said, the painting was kind of pretty so I kept it."

"Where can we find your brother?" Scotty asked.

"Greenmount."

"The cemetery?" Scotty questioned.

"Yeah. He got killed a couple of days after he gave me the painting. Had a head on collision with a semi. Coroner said his blood alcohol was .13. He should never have been driving after drinking that much."

"Did he say where he got the painting?" Lilly asked.

"Whatcha going do for me?" Fontane asked. "You're looking for a killer. Seems to me anything I tell you just might help you. I figure if I help you I should get something out of it."

"We'll tell the district attorney you were helpful," said Lilly. "I can't promise anything. But you help us find the guy who did this and he just might decide to cut you a deal with your current dilemma."

"Well," said Fontane thoughtfully, "guess it's better than nothing. Okay. He never told where he got it. Just that he picked it up at some rummage sale a couple of days earlier on the south side. Like I said, I didn't ask too many questions. Was always kind of afraid of what the answers might be."

"What about friends and associates of your brother?" Scotty asked. "You know any of them?"

"Not really. Casper stayed pretty much to himself. I usually only saw him when he needed money or someplace to crash. I'd let him sleep on the couch and he'd be gone the next morning."

"Did your brother ever mention anyone named Parker?" Lilly asked. "Or anything about a rich couple he might have known?"

"Most people Casper knew were like him: no money and no prospects. Mostly just drinking buddies. But you know. Now that I think about it he did say something the night he gave me that painting. Didn't think nothing of it at the time. He was always going off about one scheme or another. Nothing ever came of any of them."

"What'd he say?" Scotty asked.

"Said he was about to come into a lot of money. Said he knew this guy who was going to hook him up. Said he'd have plenty of money after that. Enough to live on for a long time."

"Did he mention the guy's name?" Lilly asked.

"Nope, never did. Only that the guy had some kind of job for him that was going to pay really well. Like I said, he was always spouting off like that. Always had one scheme or another going. Mostly it was just talk. He always said the plan fell through or someone backed out or something."

"What makes you think this time was any different?" Scotty asked.

"He had some money with him. Said it was a down payment on the job. Several hundred dollars at least. I never knew him to have that much money at one time in his life. And he was only working part-time so there's no way he got that from his job. Then he got killed and I just forgot about it."

"Where was your brother working when he died?" Lilly asked.

"Temple University. Worked as a part-time custodian. Mostly weekends and holidays, that sort of thing. Or when a regular custodian couldn't make it. Said it worked out good 'cause it gave him plenty of time to work on his schemes."

"May 1, 1998 was a Friday," said Scotty. "You said he worked weekends."

"Yeah. He usually worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Occasionally he'd switch with one of the other guys. So he could have time for one of his schemes."

"Thank you for your time, Miss Fontane," said Lilly. "We appreciate you talking to us."

"Just don't forget your promise. You let the DA know I cooperated."

"We will," said Lilly.

"Over twenty-six hundred dollars is stolen during the break in and her brother starts flashing around a wad of bills," said Scotty as he and Lilly left the jail. "Seems like more than coincidence to me."

"Not to mention the painting he gave her," said Lilly. "He obviously didn't get it from a rummage sale. Sounds like this Fontane might have been the one who broke into the Parker's house on April 18th."

"And from the way she talked, he didn't sound like the type that might know much about art. Could be when he saw the painting he thought it was worth something. When he found out what it was really worth he might have decided to give it to his sister instead of fencing it."

"Maybe. But a guy working only part-time has a painting worth 8 grand? Seems to me he'd think that was a lot of money. Why give it to his sister if he could fence it?"

"Maybe he figured it was too hot. Figured by giving it to his sister it would allow him to keep it hidden until he could get rid of it."

"That would make sense. He had to know the painting would be difficult to unload right away. But if he waited a while until the furor died down he might have had better luck getting rid of it."

"Only he got killed before he could," said Nick. "And apparently his sister didn't know anything about where he actually got it. She would have been crazy to hang onto it if she'd known."

"Let's see what we can find out about Casper Fontane. We may have just found our doer."

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Mr. Probst," said Will as he and Nick took seats in front of Probst's desk. "We understand you're very busy and we appreciate the time."

"My pleasure," said Probst. "Your lieutenant said this had something to do with the deaths of Richard and Ruth Parker?"

"Yes sir," said Nick. "Some new evidence has come to light and we're taking a look at it."

"Well that's good. Mayor Rendell was quite concerned when the police weren't able to find the perpetrator."

"They did everything they could," said Will. "They just didn't have enough leads to go on."

"The mayor understood that. He was just disappointed they couldn't make more progress. You mentioned some new evidence. What evidence has come to light after 5 years?"

"The painting that was stolen the night the Parker's died has been recovered," said Nick. "We're hoping that may lead us to the person who committed this crime."

"Well, that is good news. What can I do to help?"

"We were wondering if you could tell us about the night the Parker's died," said Will. "We understand that their son, Richard Parker III, was attending a party at the mayor's house when they got the news."

"That's right," said Probst. "It was a private dinner party for the new police commissioner, John Timoney. He'd only been in the office about a month and the mayor wanted to introduce him to several prominent families in Philly. The Parker's were one of the couples he had invited."

"Their son said that his mother had taken ill," said Nick. "That she was unable to attend."

"That's what he said. The mayor and the Parker's were very close. RJ called the mayor 'uncle' but he really wasn't that close with the mayor. He was closer to the parents than the children."

"RJ?" questioned Nick.

"That's what they called Richard's son. It helped distinguish between the two. There was also a sister, Elaine. I think she was attending school at UCLA when her parents were killed."

"Was RJ acting unusual or nervous that night?" Will asked.

"Not that I know. I didn't really know him that well. I'd only met him a couple of times before that. But he seemed to be acting perfectly normal to me. You don't suspect him do you?"

"As we understand it," said Will, "he was attending the party when his parents were killed."

"That's right. Two policemen arrived at the house at about 9:00 o'clock, I think. They informed Commissioner Timoney of what happened and he informed the mayor and RJ. Commissioner Timoney immediately went to the Parker's house and RJ went with him."

"Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt the Parkers?" Nick asked. "Maybe someone who had a grudge against them."

"I really didn't know them all that well. They were friends of the mayor's. I had met them several times. Mr. Parker was a big patron of the arts. He was also a lifelong Democrat and contributed heavily to the mayor's reelection campaign. I'm sure he had his share of enemies. But I really couldn't tell you who any of them were."

"Did anyone leave the party early or make any phone calls?" Nick asked.

"No, no one. We all had dinner and were in the library

"Well, thank you for your time, Mr. Probst," said Will. "We were just making sure we have our facts straight in the case. Background information."

"Any time, detectives," said Probst. "I still hear from the governor from time to time. I'll let him know you're looking into the case again. I'm sure he'd be very interested in anything you might learn. As I said, he and the Parker's were very close. I'm sure he's still interested in catching whoever did this."

"Just be sure to tell him we're only looking into it," said Nick. "We can't promise anything but we'll do the best we can."

"I have no doubt of that. And if there's anything else I can do to help please don't hesitate to come back. I'll do whatever I can to help."

"We'll keep that in mind," said Will.

"Pretty helpful fell," said Nick as he and Will left the office. "In a roundabout sort of way."

"You noticed that too, did you?"

"He says he didn't know the Parkers or their son very well but he seems very interested in finding out what we know. And he didn't tell us much more than what was all ready in the police report."

"What I find odd is that when the mayor became the governor, he didn't go with him. John said that Rendell was one of the possibilities as a Vice Presidential candidate next year. Personal aid to the mayor who then moves up to governor and possibly Vice President in a year? And Probst gives all that up to work in the city manager's office? You'd think he'd be eager for the additional power and prestige those positions would have afforded him as Rendell's personal aid."

"Maybe there's a reason he decided not to move up the ladder with Rendell."

"That is something we need to find out," said Will as they got into the car.


	4. Chapter 4

FOUR

"So Fontane said that her brother gave her the painting?" Stillman questioned. "And you say it was about 2 weeks after the home invasion?"

"That's what she said," said Lilly. "She didn't seem to know it was worth anything. Said her brother claimed he got it at a rummage sale in South Philly."

"Any reason to think she's lying?" Stillman asked.

"Didn't seem like it," said Scotty. "She was more interested in what we could do for her if she cooperated. She didn't hesitate when she answered our questions. And she didn't even ask about getting the painting back."

"Probably figured that since it was stolen she'd never see it again," said Nick.

"We did tell her you'd tell the DA she cooperated," said Lilly. "She seemed really interested in that."

"I'll call him this afternoon," said Stillman. "But this doesn't get any closer to finding the doer than we were earlier. Will, what did you and Nick find out from Probst?"

"Only what was in the police report. The Parker's son arrived at the house and told them his mother was ill and couldn't make it. Then the police showed up at about 9:00 and informed them of the break in. Then Timoney and RJ left and went back to the house."

"But Probst did seem unusually interested in the case," said Nick. "He claimed he didn't know the Parkers or their son very well but he seemed very interested in what we had learned about the murders."

"Well, he was personal assistant to the mayor for several years," said Stillman. "Maybe he was just interested for the mayor's sake."

"Except they didn't exactly part on good terms," said Will. "We ran a check on Mr. Probst. Seems before joining the mayor's staff he was at Temple University teaching legal ethics. When the mayor ran for his first term Probst joined the mayor's staff but left just before Rendell resigned from his second term."

"Temple?" Lilly questioned. "Fontane said her brother was a part-time custodian at Temple. Worked mostly weekends and holidays. Our check on him found that he also took a few courses while he worked there. Seems the staff gets special rates on courses they take."

"Any connection to Probst?" Stillman asked.

"Can't say," said Lilly. "It didn't seem to be relevant at the time. I do have the classes he took right here." She pulled out a piece of paper and looked it over. "Well, it seems that Fontane didn't take any courses with Probst. Probst was working for the mayor before Fontane was old enough to attend college."

"You said they didn't part on good terms?" Stillman asked Will. "What was the problem?"

"Rendell found a discrepancy in some campaign contributions," said Will. "Apparently a substantial sum of money couldn't be accounted for. There didn't seem to be any direct evidence that Probst had anything to do with it, though. When the mayor confronted him about it he became irate and stormed out of the mayor's office. That's when he went to work at the city manager's office."

"He stole campaign money and they still let him work at the city manager's office?" Lilly asked.

"Like Will said, there was no direct evidence," said Nick. "The mayor never made a formal complaint so there was never anything official about it."

"Will, check into the campaign angle," said Stillman. "See if how much disappeared and find out what they did about it."

"Follow the money, eh boss?" Lilly asked a wry smile on her face.

"Can we just do the investigation without resorting to clichés?" Stillman asked. "Lil, you and Scotty go interview RJ Parker. See if there's anything he can tell you about his parents murders that might shed some new light on the case."

"What about the neighbor?" Scotty asked. "Mildred Walker. She's the one who called the police the night they were murdered. Could be she saw or heard something that wasn't in the police report."

"Good idea," said Stillman. "After you talk with RJ swing by and see if Mrs. Walker is still around. She was 67 in 1998. That would make her 72 now. If she's even still alive."

"We're on it," said Lilly. "See you back here when we're done."

"Mrs. Gamble?"

The woman looked up to see Will and Nick standing next to her. Will had his police ID out so she could see it clearly. At nearly 50 Theresa Gamble was a very striking woman. She was sitting on a park bench reading a book when the two detectives approached here.

"Yes?" the woman questioned.

"I'm Detective Jeffries and this is Detective Vera. We'd like to ask you a few questions if we could."

"I suppose so," said the woman, looking at her watch. "I have to get back to work soon."

"This should only take a few minutes," said Nick, sitting down next to the woman. "It has to do with your time working for Mayor Rendell in 1999."

"Is this about the fire?" she questioned. "I understand they never did determine the exact cause."

"Fire?" questioned Will.

"Yes. It was at Mayor Rendell's campaign headquarters. I worked there in 1999 as a secretary. A small fire broke out in our records room. We lost a lot of records that day but thankfully no one was hurt."

"Actually," said Will, "it has to do with a campaign fund discrepancy. One that might have involved Garland Probst."

"I don't remember any discrepancy that involved Mr. Probst. Oh, there did seem to be a discrepancy in the records in 1999. But after the fire there just weren't enough records to be sure. I think the investigators eventually decided there was a bookkeeping error that accounted for the discrepancy."

"When was the discrepancy discovered?" Will asked.

"Now, let me think. I think it was in May. Yes, May of 1999. Just before the fire."

"What kind of discrepancy was it?" Nick asked.

"There was a difference in the ledger showing the donations made and the actually deposits made to the bank. About $25,000.00 as I recall. One of the accountants found the discrepancy when he was going over the books. He brought it to Mayor Rendell's attention and Mayor Rendell told him to look into it. Unfortunately a fire broke out in the records room about a week later destroying a lot of records. They never could find any documentation for a donation of that size so they decided it was an accounting error."

"Did Mr. Probst have anything to do with the contributions?" Will asked.

"Not that I recall. Oh he did occasionally bring in a check from a wealthy donator but not too often. And it was Mr. Probst who discovered the fire and used a fire extinguisher to put it out. If it wasn't for him the whole place could have gone up. He actually saved a lot of lives that day."

"Mr. Probst left shortly after that didn't he?" Nick asked.

"Well, yes he did. I really don't know why. Mayor Rendell never did say exactly why he left. Only that it was due to personal reasons."

"You say they didn't discover the cause of the fire?" Will asked.

"No, not really. The Fire Marshall did an inspection and he said it looked like it might have been a faulty outlet but he really couldn't be sure. I think they eventually ruled it accidental because they really couldn't determine how it started."

"Where was Mr. Probst when the fire broke out?" Nick asked.

"He was in the mayor's office going over a speech the mayor was going to give a couple of days later. We were lucky there was a door to the record's room in Mayor Rendell's office. Mr. Probst smelled the smoke and went to check it out. But as I said, thankfully only some records were destroyed. No one was even injured."

"So as far as you know there wasn't any bad blood between Mayor Rendell and Mr. Probst?" Will asked.

"Not that I remember. I do recall that the mayor seemed rather upset when he announced that Mr. Probst was leaving. I always figured he was upset at loosing Mr. Probst. The mayor often mentioned that he was one of the best personal assistants he ever had."

"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Gamble," said Will. "We appreciate you taking the time to speak with us."

"I hope I was helpful. Working for the mayor was one of the best jobs I ever had. He's a wonderful man and I'd like to think I've helped in some way."

"You've been a big help," said Nick. "You helped clear up a lot of questions we had."

"Cleared up a lot of questions?" Will asked as they walked out of the park.

"I was just being polite," said Nick. "But I find it curious there was suddenly a fire in the records room just after it was discovered that there was a discrepancy in the donations discovered."

"Yeah, that did seem a little coincidental. She mentioned $25,000.00. I wonder if the Parkers made a donation to the mayor's campaign during that time?"

"One way to find out. The bank will have records of any transactions the Parkers made."

"Assuming they paid by check," said Nick. "It's possible they could have made a cash donation in which case they wouldn't be a cancelled check."

"No, but there might be a withdrawal from their account in that amount. At any rate it's very possible there is some kind of record."

"Sounds like a good idea. Let's stop by the bank on our way back to the station."


	5. Chapter 5

FIVE

"Mr. Parker," said Lilly, "we just wanted ask you a few questions about the night your parents died. We understand this is probably a touchy subject with you and we don't want to raise any bad memories. But some new evidence has come to light and we're reinvestigating the case."

"That's all right," said Parker. "It was a long time ago and I've come to terms with it. And please. Call me RJ."

RJ Parker was 26 years old and was currently working at Parker Limited, the company his grandfather had founded nearly 60 years earlier. Both Lilly and Scotty found it a bit odd that as the son of the owner RJ was only a vice president and not the CEO. But his suit was obviously expensive as were the watch and two rings he was wearing. And his hair was immaculate as were his fingernails.

"We appreciate that," said Scotty. "We understand you were at a dinner party given by the mayor when you got news of your parent's deaths?"

"That's right. My parents were supposed to go but my mother began feeling ill so they decided not to go. I went anyway to at least put in an appearance. About 9:00 o'clock or so the police arrived and told us about the break in. You mentioned some new evidence. If I may ask, what evidence has come to light after 5 years?"

"The painting that was taken on the night your parents died," said Lilly. "It was recovered a couple of days ago. A woman named Clarissa Fontane had it. She claimed her brother gave it to her a couple of weeks after the break in."

"Really? Well, that's fantastic. I never really cared that much for that particular painting. It really wasn't worth much. My father had purchased it for my mother on their honeymoon. She loved it. That's why it was hanging in the library. My mother often sat in the library at night reading and she enjoyed sitting near the painting when she did. She told me once she was going to leave it to me in her will even thought I didn't care much for it."

"You arrived at the mayor's house about 5:50 p.m.," said Lilly. "We understand the mayor's party was scheduled to begin at 6:00. We were just wondering when your mother began feeling ill."

"Well, she hadn't really been feeling well all day. She theorized that it was something she had eaten the night before. They were still planning to go to the party until about, oh, I guess, about 4:00 or so. About 4:30 she decided she wasn't feeling well enough to go. And my father decided to stay home with her in case she needed anything."

"I see," said Lilly. "And when you checked the house after the police told you what had happened you're the one who told them what was missing?"

"Yes," said RJ. "The intruder had ransacked the library, the den, and the drawing room. The place was a mess. I made a list of everything that I could find that was missing and gave it to the police."

"The man who had the painting," said Scotty. "Fontane. His sister told us he worked part-time as a custodian at Temple University. At the same time you were a student there. We were wondering if you knew him."

"No, can't say I did. But there were about 20,000 or 25,000 students at the school not to mention all staff and other workers. I don't remember ever meeting a Casper Fontane. Why? Is it important?"

"Uh, we aren't sure," said Lilly, glancing at Scotty. The look on his face indicated he had caught it too. "We were just trying to figure out why Mr. Fontane targeted your parent's house and not one of the other ones on the street. They lived in the middle of the street. We were just trying to figure out what it was about your house that made him decide to pick it."

"I can't really say. Maybe it had the fewest lights on. I did take my dad's car to the mayor's party. Mine was all ready in the garage for the night. Maybe he saw the empty driveway and decided the house was empty. I really can't say exactly why he might have picked our house."

"You were living with your parents while you went to college?" Scotty asked.

"Yes. My sister went to UCLA-Berkley. Her boyfriend was going there and she wanted to be near him. I opted for something closer to home. That way I could attend college and still not have to worry about living in the Residence Hall."

"Forgive me for asking," said Lilly, "but you're a vice president. You father owned the company. We were just wondering why you weren't higher up in the company?"

"No need to apologize, Detective. It's a legitimate question. My grandfather started the company 1927 and when he died my father became CEO. When my father died, I became a vice president instead of CEO. You're not the first person to be curious about that."

"So what's the answer?" Scotty asked.

"I was a third-year college student when my parents died. With an undeclared major. My father left the control of the company to the CFO. I guess he figured I didn't have the experience or training to run a company this size. Truth is, he was right. I would never have been able to run this company. My dad was right for doing what he did."

"So what did you inherit?" Lilly asked.

"I'm sorry," said RJ, "but what does this have to do with my parent's murders?"

"Just background information," said Lilly. "As I said one of the things we're trying to figure out is why Fontane targeted your house. If he was the one who murdered your parents. So far all we have is Fontane gave the painting that was stolen from your house to his sister. We haven't ascertained yet how he came into possession of the painting. If we can figure out why your house was targeted we might be able to find who murdered your parents."

"I see. Well, my sister and I didn't inherit as much as you might think. We inherited the house jointly. Neither of us wanted to sell it. So I live there and my sister visits from time to time. Besides that we inherited a considerable number of stocks and bonds my parents had. The income from those allows me to live reasonably well. About a hundred twenty thousand a year. And there was the lump sum cash we inherited. About $850.00.00 each. There were also some odds and ends. Mostly things my parents had collected during their lives."

"Considering how much your parents were worth that doesn't seem like a whole lot," said Scotty.

"My father always believed that people should work for what they get. Even my allowance when I was a kid. I was expected to do chores to get it. And if I didn't do the chores, he deducted what he felt was a fair amount from my allowance for everything I didn't do. Considering that he was pretty generous I think."

"Of course," said Scotty. "And you job as vice president must pay pretty well."

"It's not bad," said RJ, smiling slightly. "But to be honest I make the same salary any vice president who's been with the company as long as I have makes. It was part of my father's will. Once I graduated with a degree in business management I got a job here as a vice president. But I have to work my way up just like any other employee."

"Well, I think that will about do it," said Lilly. "You've been very helpful, RJ. If we learn anything we'll let you know."

"I appreciate that. Besides this Fontane do you have any other leads on who might have broken into my house that night?"

"We've only begun our investigation," said Scotty. "Sometimes these things can take a while."

"Of course, I understand. Thank you for your visit. I'll look forward to hearing from you when you learn anything else."

"Well, that was informative," said Lilly as she drove back to police headquarters. "I think RJ knows more about what's going on than he's telling."

"I think you're right. He knew Fontane's first name. But neither of us had mentioned his first name. So how did he know Fontane's name was Casper if he didn't know the man?"

"Did you notice he also didn't ask about the painting? You'd think after 5 years he'd be eager to get it back. Especially considering how important he said it was to his mother."

"Yeah, I caught that, too. I'd also imagine he'd be a bit more upset about inheriting so little from his parent's will. His father had a personal wealth of some $200,000,000.00. And he only inherits $850,000.00 and some stock options? That had to hurt."

"He did say his dad insisted that he earned whatever he got."

"Maybe. But it was his dad's will. You'd think his dad would want to make sure he was able to live in the style he was accustomed to growing up. Even if he didn't maybe RJ thought he'd inherit more once his parents died. Must have been quite a shock when he found out what he was really getting."

"You might be right, Scotty. So I guess you're thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That the mayor's party was just a cover? Yeah, I am. With his dad's money he would have easily been able to pay Fontane to break into his house and murder his parents and make it look like a burglary gone bad. And the whole time he has the perfect alibi. No one is going to suspect someone who was having dinner with the mayor when his parents were killed."

"The question now is how to connect RJ to Fontane. He's right about one thing. There are a lot of people at Temple University. We can't interview them all hoping to find someone who can put the two together."

"Maybe Will and Nick had some luck finding out about why Probst had a falling out with the mayor."

"Only one way to find out," said Lilly. "Let's go see where we stand on the case."


	6. Chapter 6

SIX

"So what you're telling me is we have two different suspects for the same crime with different motives?" questioned Stillman after everyone had brought him up to speed. "We have a personal assistant to the mayor trying to cover the fact that he's skimming money from the mayor's election fund. And we have a son who wants his inheritance but isn't willing to wait for nature to take his course."

"That's what it seems like," said Will. "I have to admit Lilly and Scotty's theory of the case makes at least as much sense as mine and Nicks."

"Except there's no indication that this RJ was involved in his parent's murders," said Nick.

"He knew Fontane's first name without Lilly or me telling him," said Scotty. "And he claimed he never knew Fontane."

"Well, there is that," said Nick.

"Can we connect Probst as the one who started the fire?" Stillman asked.

"The Fire Marshall said the fire was suspicious but nothing concrete," said Nick. "He eventually had to rule it faulty wiring but he said he wasn't completely satisfied that's what it was. He just didn't have enough concrete evidence to prove otherwise."

"And according to the parent's bank records," said Will, "Mr. Parker wrote a check for $25,000.00 to Mayor Rendell's election campaign in 1998. Just a few weeks before the break in. The exact amount that apparently went missing."

"And the check was endorsed by Garland Probst," said Nick. "Except that isn't unusual. Probst usually deposited the money that came into the campaign headquarters. With their records destroyed in the fire it was near impossible to determine whose money went into the account and whose didn't."

"That's a pretty neat package," said Stillman. "The man steals money from the mayor's election campaign, destroys the evidence, and is even hailed as a hero for saving uncounted lives from the 'accidental' fire at campaign headquarters. And we don't have a shred of evidence to prove it."

"Pretty slick little scheme," said Lilly. "Without those records there's no way to prove he stole any money. And with Fontane dead it's nearly impossible to connect the two."

"Well, I did a check on Probst while Will and Nick were interviewing him," said Stillman. "Not too bad a record. Graduated Suma Cum Laude from Temple University in 1989. Got a teaching post at Temple teaching legal ethics at Temple until 1992 when he joined Mayor Rendell's team. Then in 1999 Probst left his employment with the mayor and became the Assistant City Manager where he's been ever since."

"Any indication of any wrong doing besides the missing campaign funds?" Scotty asked.

"Nothing official," said Stillman. "If he is dirty he's very careful about it to make sure he's not suspected of anything."

"Well, in 1992 Casper Fontane would have been 11 years old," said Lilly. "Not nearly old enough to attend college. So it's unlikely he would have had any contact with Probst. And when he was working at the college Probst was working for the mayor. Not much chance he would have come into contact with Probst at all."

"I also ran Fontane through the computer," said Stillman. "Typical rap sheet. In trouble most of his juvenile life. Mostly petty stuff. Nothing significant. He got a job as an assistant custodian at the university on his 16th birthday. Apparently he had an uncle who worked there that got him the job. His grades were minimal in high school and he dropped out just before he got the job at the college."

"So he's an underachiever," said Scotty.

"Not from what I found out," said Stillman. "Just not very bright. I spoke to a uniform that hauled him in a couple of times. He told me the kid wasn't the smartest kid he'd ever met."

"Doesn't sound like he was smart enough to plan and execute what happened at the Parker's home," said Lilly. "The police report said the burglar alarm at the house had been disabled. One of the wires to it had been cut. How does a kid with minimal grades and on the lower end of the IQ table figure out how to disable a sophisticated burglar alarm?"

"Maybe he looked it up on the Internet," suggested Nick. "You can find just about anything on there."

"Maybe," said Lilly. "But how did he know which alarm system to investigate? There are hundreds of them on the market. How could he be sure he picked the right one?"

"Probst said he wasn't friends with the Parkers," said Nick. "So it's unlikely he'd have ever been to their home."

"But the son would have known what type of alarm the house had," said Scotty. "He might even know how to disable it so it couldn't be activated."

"The police report said the alarm was still on but the power wire had been cut," said Stillman. "That's why it never went off."

"Did the investigators on the case check out the alarm company?" Lilly asked.

"Yes," replied Stillman. "It was one of the leads they had in the case. They thought one of the employees might have gone to the house knowing how to disable the alarm. But all of the employees were accounted for and discounted. They apparently all had alibis."

"Five years is a long time," said Lilly. "Could be one or more of those alibis isn't as strong as they used to be."

"You know I've been thinking," said Scotty. "Everything keeps coming back to Temple College. Fontane worked there. RJ was a student there. And Probst graduated from there and even taught for a couple of years there after he graduated. Maybe we should check out the college and see what we can find out."

"I was just thinking the same thing," said Nick. "Even after 5 years there must be someone there who can put Fontane together with either Probst or RJ. If we can make a connection maybe we can figure out which one of them was involved in the murders."

"My money's on RJ," said Lilly. "He had to have known Fontane. How else would he have known Fontane's first name?"

"That's what we need to find out," said Stillman. "Lil, you and Scotty check out the college. Nick, go check with the alarm company and see what you can find out. Will, I want you to interview the officers that answered the call to the Parker's home that night. See if there's anything they can tell you that might not have been in the report."

"Okay," said Will.

"We need to narrow our suspect pool," said Stillman. "We've got 2 suspects with different motives. We can't go to the DA with that. We have to figure out which was the one involved. As long as there's another viable suspect it will be reasonable doubt for whoever gets charged. I want one of them eliminated."

"We'll do our best, boss," said Lilly. "We should also check out Fontane's home. Where he was living during and after the break in. So far the painting is the only thing that was recovered from the robbery. Not much chance of tracing the money that was stolen but the jewelry should have turned up by now. If Fontane is the person who actually broke into the house he might have hidden them somewhere and they haven't been found yet."

"So if we can find the jewelry maybe we find out who was responsible," said Stillman.

"Exactly," said Lilly.

"I'll check out Fontane's residence," said Stillman. "Let's see if we can make some sense of this soon."

"I can assure you, Detective, that we run a reputable company here," said Reggie Hooper the general manager for the alarm company Nick was checking out. "We always abide by all appropriate laws. All of our people are bonded and insured and we've never had even the slightest problem with the police."

"I'm sure you're right," said Nick. "Actually, I'm interested in a system that was put in several years ago." He handed Hooper a piece of paper. "Those are the specifics. The house, when it was installed, the type of alarm, everything."

"Yes, I see," said Hooper, looking at the system. "I remember this. The police were here when the Parker's were murdered. What can I tell you about it? I'm sure you're aware that we cooperated fully with the police back then."

"We're just looking at the case again. I understand that all of your people were checked and cleared of any tampering with the alarm in 1998."

"Yes, they were. You don't suspect one of my people had anything to do with it, do you? As I told the detectives in '98 I don't believe any of my people could have been involved in this. We do extensive background checks on anyone who works for us. The sensitive nature of our work demands that we take every precaution."

"No, we're convinced all of your people are clean. I was just wondering if there was anything you might have remembered since '98 that might help in our current investigation?"

"No, not really. I can tell you whoever disabled it was a professional. That particular model has a number of safeguards on it to prevent tampering. But I'm sure you know that nothing is foolproof. Whatever we create sooner or later someone comes along and figures a way to circumvent it."

"The system is attached to every door and window, isn't it?" Nick asked.

"That's right. It takes a full day to set it up and get it calibrated properly. Once it's activated even if a window or door is opened as much as a quarter of an inch the system immediately alerts us. If it appears to be a genuine intrusion we immediately contact the police."

"But you didn't get an alert from the Parker's house that night."

"No. As I told the previous detectives we didn't even know there had been a break in until they came to ask us about it."

"What about one of your people maybe giving the security code to a third party? As I said, we're reasonably confident none of your people were directly involved. But is it possible that one of them might have given the deactivation code to someone else?"

"That's impossible. You see, when the system is first initialized the homeowner puts in their unique code. Sort of a PIN if you will. It's done with a special keypad that's attached to the main system in the house. Once they program in their code, the information is erased from the keypad. It's never transmitted to us and to be honest we couldn't get it for any reason."

"What happens if someone forgets their code?"

"One of our technicians goes out with another keypad and uses it to erase the old code and then the homeowner puts in a new code. Here again, we never have the actual code so there's no way anyone could give it away. The only people who know the activation or deactivation code are the homeowners and whomever they might tell."

"Are the two codes the same? Could someone say learn the activation code and use it to deactivate the system?"

"No. It's another safety feature of the system. There have to be 2 distinct and separate codes. One to activate the system and one to deactivate it. That's to prevent someone from trying to do exactly what you've described."

"What about someone tapping into the system and learning the code? Would that be possible?"

"I suppose it's possible. But it would take a computer expert to be able to hack into that system. In addition the main core of the computer is located in the house itself. That way it can't be tampered with from any external source. Whoever did something like that would have to do it from inside the house. You might call it a catch 22 situation. They can't tamper with the system unless they get into the house and they can't get into the house until the system has been disabled. It's actually one of our most popular systems."

"Well, if you don't mind my saying, it doesn't seem to be such a secure system. I mean, if you can disable it simply by cutting the external power supply it seems like all your safeguards aren't worth a whole lot."

"That couldn't happen. You see that particular model comes installed with a battery backup. The system itself runs off the power coming into the house. If the power to the house is interrupted for any reason the battery backup kicks in automatically. And when the battery kicks in we are notified immediately that it has happened. We treat the incident exactly as if we had been notified of an intruder."

"But the original police report said that the system appeared to have been disabled when the power cables to it had been cut. The cables leading to the box situated on the outside of the house."

"That's impossible," said Hooper. "As I've explained, any interruption to the power supply would have instantly activated the battery backup."

"What if the battery backup didn't kick in?"

"I find that difficult to believe. You see, those batteries continuously receive a charge from the power coming into the house. I believe it might be possible that we could, on occasion, have a faulty battery. But those are rare instances. And our routine inspections of the system at that house have detected nothing wrong with the battery supply."

"According to the official report," said Nick, looking at his notes, "the alarm system was still on but the external power cables leading into the system had been cut. Probably with something like a pair of bolt cutters or something like that."

"That's odd," said Hooper, checking his computer. "Let me see. Ah, here we are. I'm checking our maintenance records for the Parker's house. We routinely inspect the systems we install. The inspections are performed every 6 months. According to the records there's been nothing out of the ordinary with any of our inspections. And the battery backup system is working perfectly."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying you never repaired the power cable on the alarm system at the Parker's house?"

"There's no record of it. And I can assure you that our technicians document even the most mundane repair they have to perform. If they had replaced a cut power cable that would most certainly have been in the records. There's no record of any type of repair like that."

"I see," said Nick. "Well, thank you for your time. I guess that's about all the questions I have for now."

"You know," said Hooper thoughtfully, "if the alarm system had been deactivated using the deactivation code, someone could cut the cable and it we wouldn't have been notified of it."

"Wouldn't you be notified of that?"

"Frankly, no. Once the system is deactivated it's effectively dead. We wouldn't be notified of it until it was reactivated. And it's not unusual for some people to turn off their systems for hours or even days at a time. Especially when they're new. Sometimes people simply forget to turn it back on."

"Thank you again, Mr. Hooper. I appreciate your time."

"My pleasure, Detective. Please, if there's anything else I can do to help, let me know."

"I will," said Nick.

He shook hands with the man and headed out to his car.


	7. Chapter 7

SEVEN

"Detective Jeffries? Officer Morgan. My Sergeant said you wanted to speak to me for a minute."

Officer Jeff Morgan was just about to go on duty when Will arrived at his station. He had been one of the two officers to answer the original call at the Parker's house the night they had died. He was younger than Will expected, only in his late 20s.

"Yes," said Will, shaking hands with the officer. "I understand you answered a call to the estate of Richard Parker in 1998."

"That's right. I had only been on the force about a year and it was the first murder I was involved with. Is there something wrong? That was 5 years ago."

"We're just reinvestigating the case. According to the report, you and your partner arrived at the scene within 6 minutes of getting the call."

"That's about right. We were on patrol and we were near the house when the call came in. We proceeded to the house immediately but the Parker's were all ready dead when we got there."

"Tell me what happened when you got there"

"Well, the call said a neighbor had called the station saying she thought she heard shots. When we got there we noticed a side door was open and the glass was broken out of it. So my partner and I proceeded to check the house. We found the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Parker in the library. My partner had me call for backup and then we searched the house to see if the perp was still there."

"But the place was empty."

"That's right. Several of the rooms had been ransacked so we figured it was a burglary. We also noticed that the power cables to the alarm system had been cut so we figured the perp had cut the cables to gain entry to the house."

"Then what happened?"

"Backup arrived about 10 minutes later and we researched the house just to make sure we hadn't missed anything. Sometime later the Commissioner Timoney showed up. He said the Parkers were close friends of the mayor and told us to make sure we did everything by the book."

"The Parker's son arrived with the Commissioner."

"That's right. After the CSI guys had finished with the place he looked around. Gave us a list of what was missing. Once the detectives arrived we were released and went back out on our patrol. Because it was such a high profile case my partner and I decided to finish our reports before getting off shift."

"Was there anything unusual about the scene?" Will asked. "Anything that seemed out of place?"

"I'm not really sure. As I said it was my first murder case. And I was just a rookie. I relied mostly on my partner to tell me if anything was unusual. He didn't mention anything out of the ordinary."

"Where is your partner now?"

"He retired last year. Moved out of state somewhere. I don't really know. We really didn't spend much time together off duty."

"I see. So there didn't seem to be anything unusual that you noticed?"

"Well, I haven't thought about it for years. But now that you mention it there was one thing that I found odd at the time. I mentioned it to my partner but he said it wasn't anything so I forgot about it until just now."

"What was it?" Will asked.

"Well, it had rained that night. Not much. Little more than enough to get the ground good and wet. But when we were searching the house I noticed something that seemed strange. There wasn't any mud in the house. The broken glass door led to the side yard and it was mostly unpaved. And I did notice that my partner and I had tracked some mud into the house even from the driveway."

"You said you mentioned it to your partner. What did he say about it?"

"He said the perp probably wore overshoes or something and removed them before actually entering the house. To prevent leaving any shoeprints or anything. It sounded reasonable to me at the time so, as I said, I just forgot about it."

"But you've changed your mind about it?"

"Well, you know what they say. _Hindsight is 20/20._ I've answered a fair number of home invasions in the past 5 years and some of them have been during or after a storm. And not one of the perps removed their overshoes before going into the houses. Like I said, I hadn't thought about it for years. But now that you bring it up it does seem a bit odd."

"Anything else you can think of that seemed unusual?"

"No, that's about it. I suppose George could have been right. George, he was my partner back then. I suppose the perp could have removed his overshoes. Lord knows he didn't leave much other evidence at the scene. I understand the case was never solved."

"That's right. We've had some new leads come to light recently. That's why we're reinvestigating it."

"Well there's not much else I can tell you. As I said, we searched the house and found nothing and when the detectives arrived we were released to return to our patrol. That's really the last I ever heard of the case until you arrived. Is that about it, Detective? I need to be getting out on patrol."

"Yes, I think that's all. Thanks for your time. If I have any more questions I'll let you know."

"This isn't going to reflect badly on me, is it? I mean about me leaving out the mud from my report? Like I said, my partner said it wasn't important. I didn't think I had done anything wrong."

"No, it isn't going to reflect badly on you. From what I can tell you did exactly what you were supposed to do. I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Thanks Detective. Well, if you need anything else you know where to find me."

Will left the police station and headed for his car. He remembered something they had talked about earlier. About the neighbor who had called in the gunshots at the Parker's house. Mildred Walker. He decided to pay her a visit before returning to the station.

Robert Wise was in his late 40s and wore small square frame glasses and a goatee. His hair was mostly black but had some streaks of noticeable gray in it. He was dressed in a utility-type uniform with his name embroidered over one pocket. He was the Facility Manager for Temple College and was responsible for all of the maintenance and custodial personnel at the college.

Wise's office was about what Lilly had expected. Located in an out of the way place in the school it was cluttered with boxes and containers of cleaning supplies. There was a desk and three filing cabinets.

Behind the desk, covering the wall, were photographs of Wise with a variety of people. The pictures were hung in a more or less circular pattern around a single photograph that showed Wise with his arm around Bill Cosby, the comedian.

"Mr. Cosby is an alumnus here," said Wise. "Arguably our most famous one. There are a fair number of others as well." He began to point them out and it was obvious he was proud of them. "This one is me with Tom Sizemore, the actor. There's me with Mark Levin, the radio talk show host. That one there is me with Bob Saget, the comedian. And that one is Ben Bova, the science fiction author."

"You sure seem to know a lot of famous people," said Lilly looking at the photographs. Scotty was enthralled with them looking at one after another.

"Well, maybe 'know' is a pretty strong word," said Wise. "I've met them all. They eventually come back for one reason or another. Some come back to get a higher degree. Others attend alumni functions or fundraisers. Still others have their children going here. Whenever we have one come to campus I make sure to get my picture taken with them. Been collecting them for nearly 30 years: since I started working here."

"You've been here that long?" Scotty asked, sitting in a chair next to Lilly.

"Well, 27 full-time. Actually, I worked my way through college here. I didn't have enough grants or loans to make it so I got a part-time job working as a custodian to help me get through. Once I graduated I had trouble getting a job. The Facility Manager at the time offered me a full-time position until I could find something else. I've been here ever since."

"Now you're the Facility Manager," said Lilly.

"Yeah. Only back then we just called them the Head Custodian. Things have certainly changed in 27 years. But you can always count on the alumni coming back for one reason or another." He pulled a camera out of his desk. "I keep this handy just in case. And this one is digital. Saves on film and makes it a lot easier to get the pictures when they do show up."

"Mr. Wise," said Lilly. "About Casper Fontane."

"Of course. Yes, I remember Casper Fontane. His uncle worked here and asked if I could put him on. He was under 18 and according to college guidelines I couldn't put him on full-time. So I hired him party-time. Mostly weekends and holidays, that sort of thing. And for special events. I like to give my regular people as many breaks as I can."

"We understand," said Lilly. "What can you tell us about Mr. Fontane?"

"Well, he was a good enough worker, I guess. Nothing extraordinary. He always did his job well, showed up on time, and I never found him goofing off. But he wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic worker I've ever had. I tried to get him extra work when I could but a lot of the time he'd just say he couldn't. That he had plans."

"What kinds of plans?" Scotty asked.

"He never said specifically. But he was always spouting off about how he was going to strike it rich one day. He always seemed to have some scheme going on but nothing he would talk about. He always said that soon he was going to have all the money he needed."

"Lot of dreams and no action, huh?" Lilly asked.

"Pretty much. I remember a couple of weeks before he died he said he was about to come into a lot of money. I asked him about it but he wouldn't talk much. Just that he had something in the works that would set him up for a long time. But then he was killed in a car accident."

"When was that exactly?" Scotty asked.

"Oh, let me think. I guess it was near the middle of April or so. I remember because a couple of weeks before that he had helped clean up for an alumni fundraiser we had here. The mayor even put in appearance during the fund raiser. He wasn't an alumnus but his assistant was. The assistant convinced the mayor to show up to help with the fundraiser."

"Garland Probst," said Scotty.

"Yes, that was him. He had graduated here in '89. I remembered him because he had worked his way through college as a custodian here. He was a good worker. I offered him a job after he graduated but he said he all ready had something else lined up."

"Teaching legal ethics as we understand it," said Lilly.

"Well, not exactly teaching," said Wise. "He was TA for one of the professors here. I suppose he did teach some. When Professor Goble wasn't able to. But for the most part he did things like grade papers and things like that. He was here for a couple of years and then the mayor hired him. We thought it was quite a coup getting the mayor to attend one of the fundraisers."

"Did Fontane and Probst talk at all?" Scotty asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact they did. It seems they had a great deal in common, both having worked here. But I finally had to remind Fontane to get back to work."

"Do you know if Fontane and Probst ever saw each other again?" Lilly asked. "After the fundraiser?"

"Not that I know of. But then I don't make it a habit of prying into the personal lives of the people who work for me. I suppose they might have. But I never knew anything about it."

"When was the fundraiser that the mayor attended?" Scotty asked.

"I think it was the weekend of April 4. It was a Saturday, that much I remember."

"Can you tell us if Fontane worked on the 18th?" Lilly asked.

"I'll have to check my records. I won't be a minute."

He moved over to a filing cabinet and opened the bottom drawer. He flipped through the files and finally pulled one out. He brought the file back to the table and opened it, looking through it for a minute.

"No, he was off that night. Oh, I remember now. He switched with one of the regular guys. Said he had something he had to take care of. Both shifts were covered so I didn't have a problem with it. Fontane was back at work the next day."

"What about RJ Parker?" Scotty asked. "Do you know if he and Fontane knew each other?"

"Not that I know of. I remember RJ. He was on the Student Council. His family had enough money he didn't have to work while going to college. But to the best of my recollection I don't remember them ever meeting. Of course it's hard to say for sure. That was 5 years ago. But students like Parker usually didn't associate with the help, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, we know what you mean," said Lilly. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Wise. You've been a lot of help in our investigation."

"You never did say what the investigation was about," said Wise.

"Just following up on some new leads in an old case," said Lilly. "Nothing for you to be concerned with."

"Well, I need to be getting back to work," said Wise. "There's a dinner here tonight and we have to set up for it."

"We'll see ourselves out," said Scotty.

"That was interesting," said Lilly as they walked off campus. "Fontane wasn't working the night the Parkers died. And according to Wise, Parker and Fontane didn't know each other. No connection there."

"Well, Fontane apparently had a connection to Probst. Looks like Will and Nick might have been right. The 25 grand Rendell suspected Probst of stealing probably wasn't the only donations Probst stole. He had several years to skim from the books."

"And he probably paid Fontane to kill the Parkers to keep them quiet. Then he sets the fire in the records room to destroy the evidence and to prevent the missing donations from being traced back to him."

"He probably destroyed any records for any donations he had skimmed. With no record of them there was no way to prove he had taken them."

"Pretty slick," said Scotty. "And he gets hailed as a hero for putting out the fire he started."

"Well, we'll probably never be able to prove he started the fire. But now we have a connection between Probst and Fontane. All we have to do is prove Fontane was the burglar the night the Parkers were murdered."

"Is that all?"

"Well, no one said it would be easy."

Scotty just smiled as they headed to the parking lot.


	8. Chapter 8

EIGHT

"Come in, officer," said Mrs. Walker. "I rarely get visitors except for my granddaughter. She comes to visit me twice a week. Can I get you some tea?"

"No thank you," said Will. "And it's detective. Detective Jeffries."

Mildred Walker was72 years and a very short woman, standing only about 5 feet tall. Her hair was a silver color and as she sat on the sofa a small Pomeranian dog jumped up and sat in her lap.

"This is Puffin," said the old woman, patting the dog. "I've had her for 12 years. She's about the only company I have these days. Except for my granddaughter. She comes by to visit me about twice a week. She's a good granddaughter. You'd like her, officer."

"I'm sure I would, ma'am," said Will. "Mrs. Walker, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about the night the Parkers next door died?"

"Horrid business. Puffin and I had just gone out for our walk at 8:30 like we always we. I always walk Puffin twice a day. Once at 10:00 in the morning and again at 8:30 at night. We never go far. Usually just around the block. Sometimes my granddaughter will walk her for me. Did I tell you my granddaughter comes by twice a week to visit me?"

"Yes, ma'am, you did. About the night the Parkers died. Do you remember what happened that night?"

"Well, of course I do, young man. I remember it as clear as if it was yesterday. Puffin and I had gone out for our walk at 8:30 just as we always do. I walk Puffin twice a day. Once at 10:00 in the morning and again at 8:30 at night. Usually just around the block. Puffin needs her exercise, you know."

"I'm sure she does. What happened that night, Mrs. Walker?"

"Well," said the woman thoughtfully. "Puffin and I had just started our walk. We were just passing the Parker's house when we heard two gunshots. Bang, bang. Just like that. Well I've lived in this house for 37 years. I've never known the Parker's to have a gun. I knew something was wrong. So Puffin and I immediately went right back into my house and called the police. And you know they came right away? Took almost no time at all."

"Yes, ma'am. You said this was at 8:30 exactly?"

"Well, practically. I walk Puffin every night at 8:30. So she can get some exercise and, uh, do her business. It doesn't take long to walk to the Parker's house. It's right next door. So, yes, I guess it was almost exactly 8:30."

"Did you see anyone else around the house? Maybe someone who didn't belong there or a stranger?"

"No, can't say I did. The only other person I saw around the house was that nice young son of theirs. RJ they call him. On account of he has the same name as his father. RJ is a real nice boy. Used to come over and mow my yard when he was younger."

"So as far as you know, no one was around the house earlier in the day?"

"Young man, I do not spy on my neighbors. It's just not proper."

"No, ma'am, I didn't mean to imply that you did. I just thought that while you were out walking Puffin you might have seen someone there, that's all."

"Well, I'm afraid I didn't. The police came over after they arrived and told me that poor nice young couple had been murdered. Such a horrid affair. Who would do such a horrible thing to such a nice young couple?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, ma'am. Well, I thank you for your time. You've been very helpful."

"Come back any time, young man. I have so few visitors these days. Except for my granddaughter. She comes to visit me twice a week, you know. Sometimes she even walks Puffin for me. I walk her every day at 10:00 in the morning and again at 8:30 at night."

"Yes, ma'am, you told me. Well, I should be going now."

"Well don't be a stranger. Puffin and I just love company."

"I'll see what I can do," said Will as he headed for the door.

When Lilly and Scotty got back to the station Will and Nick were all ready there. Stillman was out and Nick said he was probably still checking Fontane's house. Everyone was brought up to speed on what each of them had found out.

"Well this doesn't get us any closer to finding the killer," said Scotty. "According to what Nick found out, it sounds like an inside job. Someone shuts off the alarm, cuts the cable, and then turns the alarm back on to make it appear it was cut to get into the house."

"And Mrs. Walker says she walks her dog promptly at 8:30 every night," said Will. "RJ Parker would have known that. It would have been easy for him to instruct Fontane to make sure the shots were heard while he was at the mayor's party."

"Yeah, and anyone else who might have been watching the house," said Nick.

"Except there's no connection between Fontane and Parker other than they were at the same school at the same time," said Lilly. "Along with 25,000 plus other students and who knows how many staff and faculty. But we do know that Probst and Fontane knew each other. Mr. Wise told us that they talked during one of the alumni fundraisers. Only a couple of weeks before the Parkers were murdered."

"But how would Probst have known about the deactivation code to the alarm?" Nick asked. "He said he wasn't that friendly with them. It was the mayor they were friendly with."

"Maybe he or Fontane hung around the house until the Parkers shut the alarm off," suggested Scotty. "Once the alarm was off all they had to do was cut the cable. Once the alarm was turned back on the Parkers wouldn't have known it wasn't working. We really don't know when the cable to the alarm had been cut. It could have been cut days before the murders in preparation."

"Wouldn't they have noticed there was no power to the alarm?" Lilly asked.

"Maybe," said Nick. "Maybe not. One of my neighbors got a car alarm a while back. Used to go off for no apparent reason. At first they'd rush out and check it out. But after a while it just became annoying. After that when it went off they'd just step to their door and use their remote to disable it. Maybe the Parkers did the same thing. So used to turning it on maybe they just punched in the code without really looking at it."

"Besides," said Will, "Probst would have known they were going to the party. More than likely they would have had to disable the alarm before leaving the house so they wouldn't set it off. All Fontane would have had to do was wait around until they shut it off when they left, and then cut the cable. He would have counted them being in such a hurry they would just turn the alarm back on without really looking at it. Then all Fontane had to do was break in."

"But how would Probst know that Mrs. Parker was going to be ill?" Lilly asked.

"Well," said Will, "maybe the plan was to get into the house and wait. Once the Parkers came back from the party he'd hide somewhere until they went to bed and then kill them in their sleep. Probably kill RJ too just to make sure there were no witnesses."

"Which shoots your theory about Mrs. Walker all to hell," said Scotty. "The Parkers wouldn't have returned until late. She wouldn't have heard the shots at 8:30 because there wouldn't have been any shots then. If that was the plan they just got lucky. The Parkers were killed while Probst had an airtight alibi."

"And then Fontane goes and gets himself killed a couple of weeks later," said Lilly, "severing any possibility that we could use him to link Probst to the murder."

"Are we sure Fontane's death was an accident?" Will asked. "Maybe Probst had him killed to keep him quiet."

"No, it was an accident," said Scotty. "There's absolutely no connection between the driver of the truck that hit Fontane's car and Probst. The truck driver was from out-of-state and was only passing through Philly. Besides there were at least a dozen witnesses that said that Fontane ran a red light. The truck driver didn't even have time to put on his breaks before he hit Fontane."

"So we're kind of at an impasse," said Lilly. "On the one hand we have evidence that suggests it was an inside job but no evidence that Fontane and RJ ever met. On the other hand we have evidence to suggest that Probst hired Fontane to kill the Parkers but no evidence to prove he was able to disable the alarm. The boss is going to love this. He wanted us to clear one of them and all we've done is find more evidence that implicates both."

"Detective Rush?"

They looked up to see Stewart Holcomb standing next to the desks. They had been engrossed in their analysis of the case that none of them had noticed him walk up.

"Mr. Holcomb, what can I do for you?" Lilly asked.

"I was wondering if I might have another look at that painting you showed me the other day," said Holcomb. "I've been thinking about it and something doesn't seem quite right with it. I can't put my finger on it but there is something definitely odd about it."

"You think it might be a fake?" Scotty asked.

"Oh, no, I'm sure it's genuine. Besides, there'd be no point in faking it. As I explained the other day, it just isn't worth enough to fake."

"I suppose you can take another look at it," said Lilly. "But it's still evidence in a murder investigation. You'd have to look at it in the evidence room."

"Of course, I understand. It's just that it's been bothering me since you brought it to me the other day. I'd just like to look at it again and see if I can figure out what it is that's bothering me about it."

"Scotty, can you take Mr. Holcomb down to the evidence room?" Lilly asked. "We'll see if we can't sort this out while you're gone."

"Sure thing," said Scotty. "Right this way, Mr. Holcomb."

As Scotty and Holcomb headed for the evidence room the others continued to discuss the case to see if there was something they had overlooked or missed.


	9. Chapter 9

NINE

It was nearly an hour before Stillman showed up. When he did he had a folder in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. He noticed all of the other detectives gathered around one desk and asked where Scotty was. Lilly told him and he just nodded. Then he had them bring him up to speed on the case.

"So as you can see," said Lilly, "we're no closer to solving this thing than we were this morning."

"Maybe not," said Stillman. "I checked out Fontane's house. It seems he was living with his sister when he died. At the same house where his sister was arrested earlier. Since it's still classified as a crime scene I was able to get in and have a look around."

"What did you find?" Will asked.

"Not much. I found the room where Casper Fontane apparently stayed. It was up in the attic. It had been converted to a small room. There wasn't much in it other than some old clothes, magazines, that sort of thing. Apparently his sister hadn't cleaned it out since he died."

"Maybe she was too busy running her girls to be concerned with it," suggested Nick.

"Maybe," said Stillman. "But I did find this." He opened the bag and removed a small tub of drywall compound, a drywall trowel, and some folded up newspapers The tub was only partially full and the trowel had dried compound on it. "According to the dates on the newspapers and a receipt I found with these, they were purchased at a local hardware store a couple of days after the Parkers were murdered."

"What's this have to do with the case?" Lilly asked.

"Well," said Stillman, "the original theory was a burglary gone bad. But we've found evidence hit might have been a murder-for-hire scheme. Now, assuming the burglary was just a cover for the murders, the murderer or murderers wouldn't want any of the items taken to surface again. It might connect them to the murders. So they had to dispose of the items where no one would ever find them."

"So you cut a section out of a wall, put the items inside, and then repair the section," said Will. "Once it was painted over there would be no way to tell it had ever been done."

"Exactly," said Stillman. "And it might be years or even decades before the items were discovered in the wall. And whoever discovered them might not have turned them into the police meaning they might never be connected to the murders. I checked around the house. It hasn't been painted in years and there was no indication of any repairs to any of the walls. So I don't think the items were hidden there."

"But maybe at the college," said Lilly. "They're always doing some kind of construction or repairs there. Fontane could have taken them to work with him and hidden them in just about any wall in the place. Once he had them hidden in the wall they might never have been found."

"Temple University is a big campus," said Nick. "There are a lot of buildings there. It might be impossible to find exactly where he hid the stuff."

"Wise might know," said Lilly. "He's been there 27 years. He could probably tell us what construction or repairs were being done around that time."

"And tear up every wall where we think the items might be?" Will asked. "With no guarantee they're even there? Fontane could have hidden them in a friend's house or some other place we don't even know about."

"It's a start," said Lilly. "It can't hurt to check with Wise and see what he knows."

"Hey boss," said Scotty, coming into the squad room, Holcomb close behind. "I'm glad your back. Mr. Holcomb wants to take the painting from the Parker murder back to his studio to check out something. I said he'd have to get your okay first."

"What do you want to check out, Mr. Holcomb?" Stillman asked.

"I'd rather not say just yet," said Holcomb. "It's very possible I'm wrong in which case I don't want to look foolish. But I did figure out what was bothering me about that painting. I just want to check it out and see if I'm right. I do have the proper clearance for it, Lieutenant. And I have done extensive work for the police department in the past. I can assure you I'll return it as soon as possible without any damage to it."

"I'm familiar with your credentials," said Stillman. "And you do know the procedure for removing evidence from the evidence room. How long will you be needed it?"

"Only a few hours," said Holcomb. "I can have it back first thing in the morning."

Stillman motioned for a uniform to come over.

"Take Mr. Holcomb back down to the evidence room and make sure all the appropriate paperwork is filled out," he told the uniform. "He's doing some work for us and he needs to take some evidence to work on."

"Yes, sir," said the uniform. "Mr. Holcomb, this way please."

Smiling, Holcomb followed the uniformed officer back to the evidence room.

"You're going to let him take evidence out of the station?" Nick asked.

"He's cleared for it," said Stillman. "Not much different from sending tissue samples out to a lab for analysis. And he does have all the proper clearances. I have something else." He opened the folder he had and spread some papers out on the table. "I ran by the DA's office and had a talk with them. They got me a warrant for these."

"What are they?" Lilly asked, looking over the papers.

"Bank records," said Stillman. "If this was a murder-for-hire plot then money had to have changed hands somehow. I thought with these bank records we might be able to find out who paid who."

"What are these?" Scotty asked, picking up three photographs from the folder. One was of RJ Parker. The second was of Garland Probst. The third was an unidentified young man.

"Oh, I took those with me to show at the bank," said Stillman. "In case we needed an identification."

"Who's this one?" Scotty asked, holding up the photograph of the unidentified man.

"That's Casper Fontane," said Stillman. "As I understand it that was the last photo taken of him before he died. It's his work ID at the university."

"I've seen him before," said Scotty. "In one of the pictures in Wise's office. He's in the background. I think he's talking to someone but I don't remember exactly who or which picture. But I'm sure it's him."

"Well," said Lilly, "looks like we have another to go back to Temple University."

"Oh?" questioned Scotty. "Did we miss something the first time?"

"Not exactly," said Lilly. "Something that came up while you were out. Come on. I'll explain on the way." She handed the bank records to Stillman. "Hang on to those, boss. It looks like this thing might be coming together. I want to stop in the archives room and have a look at something down there. Something that I remember seeing in one of the photographs of the crime scene. Then we'll head out to the university and see if we can't find those missing items."

"Get back here as soon as you can," said Stillman. "We don't want anyone running on us before we have a chance to get them."

"Be back just as soon as we can," said Lilly.

The next day RJ Parker was sitting in the interrogation room. Lilly sat across from him with a folder full of papers. Nick sat in a chair at the head of the table to Parker's right.

"I'm not really sure what else I can help you with, Detective," said Parker. "As you know I was at the mayor's house for dinner when my parents were killed."

"Oh we know that," said Lilly. "But you weren't exactly honest with us when we spoke, were you?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. I told you everything I know."

"You said you made a good living as a vice president. But you neglected to mention that you're living well beyond your means."

"I wouldn't exactly say that."

"Oh, come on," said Nick. "You're up to nearly $500,000.00 in debt to a bookie in Vegas. We spoke to Nicky Spinoza. He said you've been betting with him for years."

"Gambling is quite legal in Vegas," said Parker. "And Nicky knows I'm good for it."

"You claimed you never met Fontane," said Lilly.

"I didn't. The first I knew his name was when you mentioned it to me."

"But neither my partner nor I mentioned his first name. You're the one who mentioned his first name was Casper."

"I'm sure you mentioned it to me."

"No, I didn't," said Lilly. "Neither did Detective Valens. So if you didn't know Fontane, how did you know his first name was Casper?"

RJ didn't say anything. He just looked at Lilly as if trying to think of an answer. Lilly took a photograph out and slid it over to RJ. The photo showed Robert Wise and Daryl Hall and John Oates standing together. In the background of the photo were RJ and Fontane apparently talking.

"You did meet Fontane," said Lilly. "This photo shows you and him talking when Hall and Oates were there."

"Well, perhaps I did meet him briefly," said Parker. "I really don't remember."

"I think you do," said Nick. "I think you lied to Detectives Rush and Valens so they wouldn't be able to put the two of you together."

"You can't prove that."

"Maybe not. But we can prove that you and Fontane knew each other. That photo proves it."

"So? I'm sure he knew lots of people."

"Like Garland Probst?" Lilly questioned.

"I don't know. Maybe. I only knew Mr. Probst in passing. He was the aid to a good friend of my parents."

"Oh, we think you knew him better than in just passing," said Lilly. She slid another picture over to RJ. This one showed an older woman lying on a floor in a house robe covered in blood. "This is a photo taken by a police photographer. That's your mother on the night she died."

"I know," said Parker, sliding the picture away. "I'm sure you understand that's not exactly a picture I care to look at."

"There's something interesting about this photo," said Lilly. "Your mother is wearing makeup. You said she was ill and wasn't going to the mayor's party. So why is she wearing makeup in this photo?"

"She had started to get ready and then decided not to go. I suppose she all ready had her makeup on when she started feeling worse."

"Except you told the police you left the house at about 5:15 to get to the mayors party in time," said Nick. "Your parents were killed until 8:30. You mean to tell us that in more than 3 hours your mother didn't remove her makeup?"

"I'm sure I don't know. All I can tell you is she decided not to go to the party. I wasn't even there so I can't tell you what she did after I left."

"Unless she couldn't remove her makeup," said Lilly. "Because she was all ready dead."

"That's crazy. My parents were perfectly fine when I left. My mother wasn't feeling well but she would have gotten over that. This Fontane broke in and murdered them during a burglary. Your own investigators said so."

"That's what they thought at the time," said Lilly, sliding another picture over to RJ. "But I think this tells another story. Look in the corner of that picture. See that little square next to the table? You know what that is? It's an electric blanket."

"That doesn't prove anything. It was the middle of April. It was still cool at night. My mother probably just got it to ward off the chill instead of turning the thermostat up."

"Except the blanket isn't on a chair or the sofa where you'd expect it to be," said Lilly. "Instead it's folded all nice and neat on the floor next to where your parent's bodies were found. We checked with the coroner. He tells us if you put an electric blanket on a dead body and turn it on it will keep the body warm for several hours. Enough to throw off the time of death."

"You know what I think?" said Nick. "I think you murdered your parents for the inheritance. And you paid Fontane to break into your house while you were at the mayor's party to give yourself an alibi. Fontane was probably supposed to take their jewelry, watches, your dad's wallet, and any other cash or jewelry he could find in the rooms he ransacked. Must have really ticked you off when he took that painting. That probably wasn't part of the plan."

"You're crazy," said RJ. "No one would believe any of this. And you can't prove anything."

"We can prove you paid Probst," said Lilly, sliding the bank statements Stillman had brought in over to RJ. "According to your bank records, after your father's will was probated, you withdrew $250,000.00 from your bank account. And a couple of weeks later Probst deposited that amount into his bank account."

"That money was for gambling debts," RJ insisted.

"Try again," said Nick. "We had a nice long chat with Spinoza. He says you never owed him anything near that amount five years ago."

"It was to another bookie," RJ insisted.

"Who?" Lilly asked.

"I don't remember his name. It was 5 years ago."

"You give a guy $250,000.00 and you don't remember his name?" Nick questioned. "I'd sure remember who I gave that much money to."

"Well, I don't. Just some bookie in Vegas. That's all I know."

"Well," said Nick, pulling a wallet out of his pocket and laying it on the table, "I guess with the type of money you're used to handling two hundred and fifty grand is probably a small amount."

RJ glanced at the wallet and then suddenly took a harder look at it. The initials RJP2 were engraved on the outside of the wallet. A look of recognition crossed his face.

"I see you recognize your father's wallet," said Lilly. "We almost didn't find it. But Mr. Wise at the university remembered that just after your parents were murdered Fontane repaired a whole in a wall in a classroom there. Claimed he had accidentally broken it while working in the room. We found that wallet inside the wall where he hid it." She pulled out a small plastic bag containing some jewelry and laid it on the table. "This was also in it. It's all the jewelry that you identified as being stolen during the robbery."

"That doesn't prove anything other than Fontane was the murderer," RJ insisted. "It doesn't prove I had anything to do with it."

"Interesting thing when we checked the wallet," said Nick. "We found your prints on it."

"That's not so unusual. I've handled it dozens of times. Of course my prints are on it."

"Except our fingerprint expert says that yours were on top of all the other prints on it. Which means you were the last one to handle it. Another interesting thing. Fontane's prints weren't on the wallet. But they were on the bag we found the items in. Along with yours."

RJ just looked at Lilly and Nick. He was nervous and they could both tell it.

"We can also prove that the alarm was sabotaged from someone within the house," Nick continued. "If the alarm had been cut by a burglar trying to get inside the alarm company would have been notified. The only way the alarm could have cut the way it was would be if someone turned off the alarm first and then cut the cables. Then turned it back on trying to make it look like someone had broken into the house."

"Plus there was no mud in the house that night until the policemen who arrived tracked some in," said Lilly. "That means whoever killed your parents was all ready in the house before the alarm was disabled. And according to your own statement to the police that night, only your parents and you had been in the house all day. This was a murder-for-hire. That's capital murder. This makes you eligible for the death sentence."

"It wasn't my idea," RJ suddenly blurted out. "Probst put me up to it. He planned the whole thing."

"Garland Probst was in on it with you?" Nick asked.

"I told you, he planned the whole thing. I met him at one of the college fundraisers and we got to talking. I was complaining about how my old man kept me on a short financial leash. Always insisting that whatever money he gave me I had to earn. Probst told me there was a way I could have all the money I ever wanted. He introduced me to Fontane."

"Did he tell you why he wanted your parents dead?" Lilly asked.

"Not then. I found out later he'd been skimming from the mayor's election fund. When I asked him about it he said the only way to protect himself was if my parents weren't around. So they couldn't tell the mayor they'd made a donation. He said without them there was no proof any money had been donated."

"So you just got lucky," said Nick. "Your mother got sick the day of the mayor's party which provided you with the perfect opportunity to murder your parents."

"No," said RJ. "My mother was allergic to codeine. It made her sick to her stomach. I just put some in her morning coffee. Not enough to send her to the hospital, just enough to make her feel sick enough not to go to the party. The I went to the party anyway so I'd have an alibi. It was Probst's doing. Like I said, he planned the whole thing."

"Write it all down," said Nick sliding a pad and pen to RJ. "And make sure you include Probst's involvement."

"Scotty," said Stillman watching from the observation room, "get Will and go pick up Probst. I'll call the DA and the commissioner."

"On our way, boss," said Scotty who then turned and left the room.


	10. Chapter 10

TEN

April 18, 1998, 5:00 p.m.

RJ walked into the library where his parents were sitting. He was dressed only in a ratty robe he had picked up earlier at a local thrift store. As he walked into the library his hands were behind him. His father stood up from the desk.

"I thought you were going to Edward's party?" his father questioned. "You're not even dressed yet."

Without saying a word RJ pulled the gun he was holding from behind his back and shot his father in the chest 3 times. The silencer attached to the barrel of the weapon muzzled the sound so that it was barely audible. The elder Parker fell to the floor his life's blood pouring from the wounds. RJ's mother immediately stood up and started to move toward her husband.

"RJ, what are you doing?" she exclaimed.

Without hesitation the younger man fired three shots into his mother. She collapsed on the floor next to her husband. Quickly RJ moved over and checked the bodies. They were both quite dead.

RJ immediately moved back to the hallway just outside the library and returned a moment later with an electric blanket. It was the same blanket that was on his parent's bed. He remembered how his mother would often bring the blanket down to the library to ward off the chill on cool nights such as this. He quickly covered the bodies with the blanket, plugged it in, and set the temperature control on high.

RJ quickly removed his parent's jewelry and his father's wallet. He put the items into a plastic bag he took from his pocket. Then he moved back upstairs where Casper Fontane was waiting in his room. As he quickly began to dress, he relayed instructions to Fontane.

"Don't forget," said RJ, "keep them covered until 8:30. Mrs. Walker always walks her dog at 8:30. Remove the electric blanket and put it back on the bed in my parent's room. Now, you've got 3 hours to make this look like a robbery. My dad always keeps some cash in the house. Go through the library, the den, and the drawing room. Take only whatever jewelry and money you can find, nothing else. Nothing that can be traced. You can keep the money. There should be a couple of thousand dollars in the house. And burn this robe. That way there won't be anything to get any evidence off of."

"I know the plan," Fontane insisted. "I put all the jewelry in the bag with the other items. Then I get rid of the bag so no one will ever find it so that it can't be traced to us."

"Right. And don't get greedy. Those things are worth a lot of money but it won't do us any good if we get caught. Make sure you get rid of them someplace where no one will ever find them."

"I got the perfect place. No one is ever going to look where I put them. And don't worry. Probst has all ready told me exactly what to do. Don't forget. You promised me 30 grand once you old man's will is probated."

"I won't forget," said RJ. "Once the will is probated I'll have all the money I need. You'll get your money. Just make sure you get rid of those items like I told you to."

"I will, I will. Then at 8:30 I remove the silencer from the pistol and fire a couple of shots into the back yard. So the old lady will hear them and call the police. I'll dump the gun in the river so no one will find it. After that I just gotta sit back and wait to get paid."

"And how do you get out of the house without being seen?" RJ asked.

"I use that secret tunnel in the wine cellar," Fontane replied. "The one you said was used before the civil war for the underground railroad. The one they used to sneak slaves out of the city with. Don't worry. I got it covered. Nothing's going to go wrong. Probst thought of everything."

"Okay," said RJ, looking at his watch. "I need to get going. I have to be at the mayor's house soon. These things always go on forever. All I have to do is wait until the police arrive to tell me of the break in and act appropriately upset."

"What about the alarm? Won't the police be suspicious when there isn't any alarm?"

"I all ready have that covered. I cut the wires leading into the house. That way it will look like someone disabled the alarm to break in. Oh, don't forget to break the window on the door just above the lock. And make sure you break it from the outside. If the police find the glass laying outside in the grass they'll know it was broken from the inside."

"I will, I will. Will you relax, RJ? No one can put you and me together. And Probst won't be suspected of anything. After all, he works for the mayor. A good friend of the family. As far as the police will know it's just a burglary gone bad. Now you better get going."

"Okay. And remember. Don't call me and don't acknowledge me if we see each other at school. As far as anyone is concerned we don't know each other."

"I got it. Now get going. I got some ransacking to do."

"And don't forget the gloves I gave you. This thing will fall apart if they find your prints in the house."

"Got 'em right here," said Fontane, taking out what looked like a pair of surgical gloves out of his pocket. He began to put them on. "You know I may not have a fancy education like you and Probst but I'm not stupid. I know how to make sure the police don't catch on."

"Okay. I'm going now. I'll let Probst know when your money's ready and then we'll figure out how to get it to you without any connections. Don't screw this up, Casper. So far everything is going perfectly. We don't need any stupid mistakes now."

"I won't. Not get going. I gotta make this place look like it's been burgled."

RJ straightened his tie and then left the room. Within moments he was in his father's car driving to the mayor's house. As he drove away Casper began to ransack the library. He pulled drawers out and simply let them fly haphazardly. As he searched through the contents of each drawer he pocketed any money he found. When he was finished with the desk and tables he began to randomly pull books off the shelves: to make it look like someone had gone through those, too.

He carefully collected all the jewelry he could find and put it in the plastic bag with the other items RJ had all ready put in them. Most of that jewelry was probably worth a fortune. But RJ was right. Even if he could pawn it, they'd be able to trace it back to him. No, better to just get rid of the jewelry and the wallet.

Suddenly he eyed the painting hanging on the wall directly above the desk he was rifling. It was kind of pretty. A forest with streaks of sunlight. He thought for a moment. His kid sister's birthday was coming up. And he hadn't thought of anything to get her. She'd love that. She liked that sort of thing.

He thought for a moment. _Nothing that could be traced to them,_ that's what RJ had said. But that was only if they tried to sell the stuff. He could take the painting and give it to his sister. She'd hang it in her room where practically no one would see it. Since they wouldn't be trying to sell it, there wouldn't be any way to trace it back to them.

Smiling to himself he carefully removed the painting and put it in the hallway. Besides, if it really was a burglary, it just stood to reason that the burglar would take anything of value he could carry. With the painting gone, it would look more like a burglary.

It didn't take long to ransack the three rooms. He resisted the temptation to go through other rooms. Probst had been very clear about that. No more than 2 or 3 rooms were to be ransacked. More than that and the "burglary gone bad" scenario might look suspicious. He had also been very clear to emphasize that Fontane was not to move anything else. He wasn't even to get anything to eat out of the fridge. The home had to look exactly as it always did with the exception of the ransacking of the rooms.

It was nearly 8:30 when Fontane turned off the electric blanket and folded it neatly. He placed it next to the desk intending to return it to the bedroom upstairs. He checked the bodies. They were still warm. Probst said the electric blanket would keep the bodies warm enough to delay the time of death the coroner established.

Cautiously Fontane moved to the door that led to the outside. He hesitated for a moment and then opened the door just a couple of inches. He froze half expecting the alarm to sound. When no alarm sounded he felt confident RJ had been successful in disabling it. He stepped outside, closed the door, and then used the butt of the pistol he was holding to break out the glass right above the lock. Then he removed the silencer from the gun and pointed the gun into the yard. He looked at his watch. 8:32. He fired 2 shots into the darkness beyond. Then he quickly moved back into the house leaving the door ajar slightly.

He looked around to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He was very careful not to step in any of the blood that covered the carpet around the bodies. Although he was wearing shoes one size too small to throw off the investigators he didn't want to risk tracking any of the blood after him.

He quickly checked himself to make sure there was no blood on his clothes. Probst had briefed him quite thoroughly on what to check. It was the little things, Probst had insisted, that usually trip people up. Things they usually didn't give a second thought to.

Convinced that everything was as it should be, Fontane moved to the hallway and picked up the painting. He looked at it once more. Yeah, his sister would love this. Then he moved to the kitchen and the cellar door that would affect his escape unnoticed.

Just as he was about to enter the cellar he remembered the electric blanket. He had forgotten to put it back in the bedroom. He was about to head back into the library to get the blanket when he heard sirens drawing steadily closer. He couldn't risk going back after the blanket. If he did the police would catch him red handed. Silently he moved into the cellar and the secret passageway that lay behind a stack of wine.

The next morning when Stillman came into the office Lilly informed him that there was a man waiting in his office to speak to him. Probst and Parker had all ready been booked and were waiting arraignment on two counts of capital murder. Probst wasn't talking but that was only a formality. Stillman was satisfied with the evidence they had Probst was facing certain conviction.

Stillman walked into this office and the man waiting for him stood up. The man was about 35 years old and was dressed in a suit. Stillman noticed a ring on his finger that bore the crest of Harvard University. The man introduced himself as Harold Stubbins.

"I work for Governor Rendell," said Stubbins. "The Governor wanted to come himself but I'm afraid his schedule just wouldn't permit it today. Commissioner Johnson called the Governor yesterday after speaking with you. The Governor wanted me to express his heartfelt thanks at solving the Parkers murders. As I'm sure you're aware, the Governor and the Parkers were good friends. He's saddened that their son was involved but he wanted me to tell you that you did an outstanding job."

"Well," said Stillman nervously, "it was actually a team effort. My detectives deserve as much credit as I do. Actually, they did most of the work. I'm just sorry we weren't able to solve this one earlier."

"The Governor does understand that you can only work with the information you have. And he's very impressed with your team, Lieutenant. They did an excellent job and he wanted me to tell all of those involved how much he appreciates their hard work in this case."

"Well, if I might suggest that you tell them yourself? They're all here right now and I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing how much the Governor appreciates their work."

"That's a good idea. I'm sure the Governor would like to know the names of everyone involved in this case. Too often cases go unsolved that it's nice to know we have people who can bring the suspects to justice."

"Let me introduce you to them," said Stillman, leading Stubbins out into the squad room.

Stubbins had left and the team was feeling very proud of their accomplishment when Stewart Holcomb came rushing into the squad room. He was carrying the painting that had reopened the investigation. He also appeared to be quite excited.

"Lieutenant Stillman, an officer told me you had solved the case. He said the Parker's son had murdered them?"

"That's right. He's being arraigned today. Are you done with your examination of the painting?"

"Indeed I am. I understand that Mr. Parker inherited his parent's estate when they died. I assume that means he is the rightful owner of the painting."

"Normally yes," said Stillman. "But since he murdered his parents the law says he can't profit from those murders. I'm no lawyer but I would imagine that would mean he can't inherit from his parent's estate."

"I see. Well then, who would become the rightful owner of the painting if that happens?"

"I suppose his sister. I understand they both inherited half of their parent's estate. If it's ruled he can't inherit from the estate I imagine that would mean she'll inherit the whole thing, including the painting. Are you wanting to return it to her?"

"Not exactly," said Holcomb. "Actually, I was hoping to get permission to do some rather extensive work on it."

"What kind of work?" asked Lilly, walking into Stillman's office. "Hello, Mr. Holcomb. I thought you were just going to examine the painting."

"I did. And I found what was bothering me about the painting. Over time a painter's style can change some. As they mature and increase their skill at painting many times their style will change reflecting those changes."

"Okay," said Stillman. "I guess that makes sense. What does that have to do with the painting?"

"I wasn't sure at first. When I examined it closer I realized his style was not consistent with other paintings he did at about the same time. Roughly 1858, the year this has always been assumed it was painted."

"When is the style consistent with?" Lilly asked.

"Roughly 20 years earlier," said Holcomb. "Approximately 1637 or '38."

"Wasn't that about the time you said he was an apprentice to Rembrandt?" Lilly asked.

"Exactly. So I got to thinking. In those days painting supplies could be expensive, especially to someone like Closson who came from a rather poor family. In order to save money painters would quite often paint over old paintings they had done. Paintings they weren't completely satisfied with."

"You think that's what Closson did?" Stillman asked. "Painted over an earlier painting he had done?"

"That was my initial thought. If he had the painting underneath might be worth a little more than the one on top. A painting done under the tutelage of Rembrandt would command a higher price than one Closson might have done on his own."

"Why do I get the feeling that's not what you found?" questioned Lilly.

"Because you're right," said Holcomb smiling from ear to ear. "I performed some standard tests on it. I even X-rayed the painting to see if I could find what was underneath it. It worked better than I imagined. Now, there's a lot of work to do before what I found can be verified. And it will have to be authenticated but I have no doubt it will be authenticated. It's quite a find."

"What is?" Stillman asked.

"The painting underneath 'Sunset In A Forest' painted by Daniel Closson. It's an undiscovered, unfinished painting by Rembrandt himself. I did some checking and found that in 1637 Rembrandt had been commissioned to do a painting of a local dignitary. But the dignitary died before the painting was finished and Rembrandt was never paid for his work. The only thing that makes any sense is that Rembrandt gave the unfinished painting to Closson who painted over it and then painted 'Sunset In A Forest' over it."

"Are you sure the painting underneath is by Rembrandt?" Lilly asked.

"Absolutely. The technique, the style, even the materials used are exactly what Rembrandt used in most of his paintings. Obviously it's unsigned but it should be relatively easy to have Rembrandt experts authenticate it once it's been cleaned up."

"Cleaned up?" Lilly questioned.

"That's why I need to know who the rightful owner of the painting is," said Holcomb. "We can remove the top painting leaving the painting underneath exposed. Once we do that it will be a simple matter to authenticate it as an original Rembrandt."

"You can do that?" Lilly asked. "Remove a top painting without harming the painting underneath?"

"Oh yes. It's slow, painstaking procedure but it can be done. I can assure you we'll use only the best experts to do it. But I can't do that without the permission of the rightful owner. That's why I asked who rightfully owned the painting. I'm sure they'll want to have the work done."

"Well technically it's still evidence in a murder investigation," said Stillman. "But once that's resolved and the painting is returned to Parker's sister you should be able to talk to her about it then. It was one of her parent's paintings, though. I'm not sure she'll want to take the top painting off to get to the bottom one."

"Besides, how much can an unfinished painting be worth anyway?" Lilly asked.

"The top painting, 'Sunset In A Forest', by Closson has been estimated at a value of about $8,000.00 or so, as I told you. A painting by Rembrandt, even an unfinished one would be worth extremely much more. What I know of the value of Rembrandt's paintings I would estimate the value of this one at roughly 6.5 million dollars. And that's a conservative estimate. It's very possible it could be worth quite a bit more. Perhaps 10 million or even more."

"Ten million dollars for an unfinished painting?" Lilly asked in surprised.

"Unfinished or not, it's a painting by Rembrandt," said Holcomb. "That alone is going to raise the value of it substantially. I'm sure that when Mr. Parker's sister learns that she might be a bit more amenable to having the top painting cleaned off."

"Well, as I said, right now it's evidence in a murder investigation," said Stillman. "But it will probably be released very soon. We have RJ Parker's confession and written statement and there shouldn't be any problem getting a conviction on Probst assuming it even goes to trial. It shouldn't be long before we can release it to the sister."

"Could I have her address?" Holcomb asked hopefully. "If she's agreeable I can make the necessary preliminary arrangements and we can get started on restoring the painting underneath right away. As it is it's going to take some time to restore the original painting."

"I'll tell you what," said Lilly. "I'll call her and tell her what you told us. Then I'll give her your address and phone number and she can contact you if she's interested. I'm not really comfortable giving out her personal information without her permission."

"Not to mention it's illegal," said Stillman. "The Privacy Act of 1974 prevents giving out personal information, including addresses and phone numbers, without the permission of the owner."

"That will be quite acceptable," said Holcomb. "I'm sure she'll be agreeable. Thank you for your assistance. And for bringing this to my attention. You have no idea how a find like this is going to help my career. And you can rest assured I'll make sure that all of my associates are aware that you're the ones who brought it to my attention."

"That's very kind," said Lilly. "I'll call Elaine Parker this afternoon. I'm sure she'll be contacting you within the next couple of days."

"Well, I guess I should get this back to the evidence room," said Holcomb picking up the painting. "Under the circumstances I think I'll have a talk with the sergeant in the evidence room. See if he can give it some special handling to make sure to minimize any damage to it."

"That's probably a good idea," said Stillman. "I'll call down in a few minutes and let him know just how important this is."

"Again, thank you very much," said Holcomb. "I have a great deal of work to do in the coming months."

He shook Lilly and Stillman's hand and then carefully carried the painting out of the office heading for the evidence room.

"It's ironic, you know," said Lilly as she watched the man hurry from the squad room.

"What is?" Stillman asked.

"Parker murders his parents to get his hands on the supposed millions he thought he'd inherit," said Lilly. "Then he only gets $850,000.00 in cash and some stock options. And the whole time he had a painting hanging in the library worth several million dollars. Only he didn't know it."

"That is pretty ironic," said Stillman. "It also means his parents didn't have to die. He could have arranged for Fontane to break in to the house while the Parker's were at the mayor's party. Fontane could have taken the money, jewelry, and painting and then he could have 'discovered' the Rembrandt after having the top painting cleaned off. No one would be the wiser and he could have collected the millions he was after."

"They might still have ended up dead, boss," said Lilly. "Probst needed to get rid of them. But at least RJ wouldn't be going to prison for the rest of his life. Just goes to show you the old axiom is true."

"What axiom?" Stillman asked.

"Money is the root of all evil," said Lilly.

"Actually," said Stillman, "the actual axiom is the _love_ of money is the root of all evil."

"Still applies," said Lilly. "Well, I guess I'll go call Elaine Parker. I'm sure she'd be interested in learning what we've learned about the case and the painting."

"Okay," said Stillman, smiling as Lilly left his office.

The End

If you've enjoyed this story, you can find more "Cold Case" stories at my website, Creative Passions, listed in my bio. You can also post your own "Cold Case" stories or other stories if you like to write fan fiction.


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